Current Events > Billionaires want more money to build Bunkers to keep the angry poors away

(+) Yeah! (+)

We literally hit late stage capitalism. Why do they need more billions? To make elaborate bunkers for when Capitalism inevitably fails it seems:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/07/style/underground-bunkers-super-rich/index.html

Operating theaters, bowling alleys and home cinemas: Not happy with safe rooms, the super-rich are building luxury fortresses

undefined posted... Few things appear to soothe the existential anxieties of the super-rich like a bunker designed to withstand anything short of total nuclear Armageddon. Yet its no longer enough for the security-conscious billionaire to stick an impenetrable safe room in the basement where it might sit empty forever. In todays uber-prime properties, bunkers have gone seriously upmarket and hi-tech, in some cases growing to the extent that whole homes are becoming 21st century fortresses.
Weve seen a lot more of a focus on entertainment, said Al Corbi, who has been at the forefront of secure luxury for 50 years as the president and founder of SAFE (Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments), based in Virginia, in the US. If youre going to be able to survive underground, we want you to be having fun.
Corbi, who helped secure a 27-floor private home in Mumbai for the billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani (whose son Anant recently made headlines with his lavish wedding celebrations), is currently working on a sprawling house on a 200-acre wooded plot, at an undisclosed location in the US (he is understandably tight-lipped about many aspects of his work).

The house itself, Corbi said in an interview via Zoom, is ultra-secure with the blast-proof doors, unbreakable windows and biometric door-entry systems. Then theres the 30-foot-deep moat with a swing bridge, the water canons capable of taking out helicopters, drones or skydivers, and the film of flammable liquid that can be automatically deployed across the surface of the artificial lake and ignited to create a defensive ring of fire.

Look at medieval times, a moat is one of the greatest deterrents, said Corbi. But they didnt have jet skis back then. Corbis client, a business mogul and avid watersports fan, saw a dual use for his moat and plans to use it as a race track for his alpha pals, too.
The very wealthy have always been targets, whether from intruders, kidnappers, or assassins. Now fears have grown to include eat the rich anti-capitalist activists, extreme weather caused by climate change, terrorists, unforeseen apocalyptic events and a perennial pandemic threat that was made all too real in 2020.
Like the Ritz-Carlton, underground
Corbi, who has also built underground escape tunnels that double as go-kart tracks, said there is no appetite among his clients for utilitarian design in safe spaces. Even 50 years ago, he says traditional bunkers looked like high-end hotels kind of like the Ritz Carlton, underground. But now his richest clients would scoff at such modesty.
A spirit of one upmanship may partly be driving demand. Several specialists have reported a bump in inquiries since reports surfaced last year of a huge compound that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is building in Hawaii, which, public planning documents revealed, includes a 5,000 sq ft underground shelter with living space, a plant and mechanical room to keep the bunker operational, and an escape hatch. Bill Gates reportedly has bunkers under all of his many homes.

Graham Harris, a founding partner at SHH Architecture and Interior Design in London, one of the worlds leading high net worth design studios, said he, too, is responding to shifting demands. Not long ago, clients tended to build the bathrooms of their primary suites to withstand attacks. Interior walls would be made of concrete, and secure doors were designed to blend with the homes decor. Better to be able to pop next door at night than try to race down to a far-off basement.
Now theyve really grown in size and stature, said Harris, who often now secures the whole suite rather than just the bathroom, allowing clients to cocoon themselves with the flick of a bedside switch. We also did a house in Highgate (an upmarket area of north London) where the cinema was actually the safe room with its own separate filtered air supply, secure doors, a kitchenette and a fully stocked area that could sustain a family for over a week.

Another client turned his 3,000 sq ft art gallery into a safe room, which also had a separate power supply. To help keep such spaces comfortable, smart skylights can be installed in the ceiling to mimic the time and outside weather, bathing subterranean interiors in constantly changing natural light.
Shark tanks, shooting ranges and simulators
Secret doors and passageways have become as much a desirable novelty to show off to guests after dinner as a vital safety feature. Creative Home Engineering in Arizona a company who specialize in creating and installing them for clients around the globe recently built a giant working rotating fireplace that swivels to reveal the underground entrance to a shooting range. In another house, an old British phone booth has been engineered so that when the right code is entered on the keypad, the glass windows turn opaque, and the back wall opens to reveal a slide leading to a secure basement complex that includes a flight simulator and a shark tank.

Corbi said billionaires have always been wise to danger, but he has now noticed far more inquiries from millionaires who might traditionally have been content with standard security measures. For this market, existing rooms can be secured for a few thousand dollars. For hundreds of thousands, prefabricated modular steel bunkers can be dropped into the ground under a new-build house.
For all but the most secure systems, Corbi explained his clients are simply buying time: If someone breaks in at night, theyre still going to get in, but theyre not going to be able to get into the bedroom, where the family is safe plenty long enough for the police to finish their coffee and donuts.
At the richer end of the spectrum, billionaires are increasingly paranoid about threats to their health, whether from bioterror attacks, viral pandemics or old-fashioned heart failures and accidents. Covid gave a big boost to this part of SAFEs business, which Corbis wife Naomi, a registered nurse, now heads up.
Some of the rooms she has overseen the creation of are as well-equipped as operating theatres at the best hospitals, with decontamination chambers, wardrobes of personal protective equipment and pharmacies stocked with emergency medicines as well as vitamin compounds tailored to residents to help them withstand long periods in isolation.
Forget nuclear bombs, the thing we should be prepping for is real life, Corbi said. If I had a dollar to spend on a bunker or on medical preparedness, I know what Id do. The days when you can throw a first aid kit in a prefab bunker and say youre safe are long gone.

Could just pay workers more and not have to worry about an uprising but you know....they aren't the brightest bunch just the greediest

I hate rich people so fucking much Jesus Christ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN0O-evLTaQ

Air filtration systems are super hard to maintain when people are actively trying to fuck with your hidey-hole.

I honestly think its less of an actual preparation against being raided and just a way to show off your spending. I mean a moat you can set on fire with water cannons that can take out helicopters and a secret slide to the basement where your shark tank is? lol. This is Dr. Evil from Austin Powers level nonsense.

Its what you come up with when you have more money than you can ever spend.

archizzy posted...

I honestly think its less of an actual preparation against being raided and just a way to show off your spending. I mean a moat you can set on fire with water cannons that can take out helicopters and a secret slide to the basement where your shark tank is? lol. This is Dr. Evil from Austin Powers level nonsense.

Its what you come up with when you have more money than you can ever spend.

No it is obvious they fear:

1. societal collapse from global warming issues
2. societal collapse if say the banks fail
3. the workers having enough and coming for their wealth

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d3cbb91d.jpg

archizzy posted...

I honestly think its less of an actual preparation against being raided and just a way to show off your spending. I mean a moat you can set on fire with water cannons that can take out helicopters and a secret slide to the basement where your shark tank is? lol. This is Dr. Evil from Austin Powers level nonsense.

Its what you come up with when you have more money than you can ever spend.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8e68a9e3.jpg

Bunch of Ebenezer Scrooges in the world, sheesh!

I would like to build a cool bunker, but alas, I am poor.

What does one even need a 27-floor home for?

You say they need to be taxed higher so they don't have the money to build stupid shit like this, I say that wealth is trickling down into contractors who will spur growth in their local economies! Line go up forever! Infinite growth is achievable!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noYTKJ78OdU
/s please no ban

When you realize that "preppers" are just people trying to sell you an endless amount of shit you don't need

Ah, yes, I too think that if we undergo total societal collapse as a result of capitalism looting the country dry the resulting riots will last a week, maybe a week and a half tops, and my high tech Internet of Things bunker will have access to all the subscriptions it needs to function.

Totally.

(These people are dumb, is what I'm saying)

As the article suggests, this has been going on since the first fence was put up and the first moat was dug.

The rich and powerful have always been paranoid about losing their stuff, and they've always had the cash to spend on keeping hold of it.

Only the technology changes.

vigorm0rtis posted...

Air filtration systems are super hard to maintain when people are actively trying to fuck with your hidey-hole.

Agree. Just find the HVAC system, fart in it, and take it offline. Billionaires can still have a few oxygen tanks but are unlikely to have stored enough for lengthy periods of time.

if youve got enough cash I would say a self-contained O2 scrubber like they have on the space station is the way to go.

The Hitman 2 mission about this is awesome.

Rich people will suffer so hard in a true apocalypse, hiding away in a bunker. All they have is their vanity. They will all go mad in a bunker within a year.

Theyd probably hire a private army as well if they needed defense.

JuanCarlos1 posted...

Theyd probably hire a private army as well if they needed defense.

Which becomes problematic for the billionaire when the money becomes worthless.

My guess is the kind of unscrupulous mercs who would take that job get a nice fortress to kick-start their new fiefdom should societal collapse actually occur.

That's kinda the thing, isn't it. You can have a vanity bunker but the only people you could get to *staff* your vanity apocalypse bunker are people you cannot trust

Like, what do you offer the doctor to get them to man the private operating room that they don't already have as a function of being a celebrity doctor. The celebrity part goes away if society collapses.

Same for utility people, private mercs, etc. You might be able to sell them on "I have a safe place" but then you're at the mercy of them realizing a billionaire is, ultimately, another mouth to feed in a scarcity situation

Voidgolem posted...

a billionaire is, ultimately, another mouth to feed in a scarcity situation

And an incredibly useless one at that.

It should be a capitol crime to own these fucking megahomes.

Confiscate them all, and convert or sell em off for affordable housing.

Board_hunter567 posted...

I say that wealth is trickling down into contractors

They aren't paying undocumented workers below minimum wage? Cause if they are which is typical for construction, that is not trickling down, it is taking advantage.

Immigrants make up one in four construction workers, and even more (31%) in the trades, according to a recent analysis by the National Association of Home Builders. In Texas and California, immigrants made up as much as 40% of the construction labor force in 2022, the NAHB said.Mar 21, 2024

WingsOfGood posted...

They aren't paying undocumented workers below minimum wage? Cause if they are which is typical for construction, that is not trickling down, it is taking advantage.

You're replying to a post that outright put a "THIS IS SATIRE" bit at the end.

DrizztLink posted...

You're replying to a post that outright put a "THIS IS SATIRE" bit at the end.

your point?

Apparently over your head.

DrizztLink posted...

Apparently over your head.

I was ducking