This is an English translation of an article I wrote for a German magazine. The article looks into the post apocalyptic strategies the wealthy and ultrarich are focusing on. Main point: The rich are as afraid of the collapse of society as anyone else, but their means to face the calamity are on another level.

  • fiat_lux
    13•7 months ago

    I’m always confused why people think the rich are the ones who will go to Mars. It would be a huge dampener on their lifestyle, and risky ensuring supply lines. There are no ski resorts, yachts, or big game hunting ranges on Mars!

    No, they won’t be the ones going. They want to send the rest of us in order to outsource the more damaging production 1 step further. Just like we have Ugandans deal with our fast fashion waste and social media moderation now, but even further out of sight and out of mind. It will be an economic and/or literal prison colony. The island bunkers are just a stopgap until they can find a way to not share the planet with as many plebs ruining their view.

    • @[email protected]English
      7•7 months ago

      Rich people want a legacy. I believe it’s why, for example, Bill Gates started being super charitable and started doing AMAs, becoming the internet’s poster boy, regularly chatting about inequality while offering zero actual solutions (the ex world’s richest man talking about inequality, ha!).

      When our current crop of billionaires get old, they’ll likely start doing the same. It really wouldn’t surprise me if in a few decades people are gushing online over how great a guy Bezos or Zuckerberg is.

      If the first trip can be a return trip, I absolutely wouldn’t be surprised if a billionaire wanted to do it.

      Actually staying there and building something, though? Fuck no.

        • @[email protected]English
          10•7 months ago

          He’s the clearest example of a wanker billionaire who then started publicly pandering to create a legacy of him being a lovely wholesome guy.

          He isn’t a wholesome lovely guy, he never was. He’s trying to save face.

          The charity money still does good things, and that’s great, but donating money to charity and telling the world about it doesn’t make you a great person.

          The likes of Bezos and Zuckerberg will 100% do the same thing when they’re old. It worked wonders for Bill’s image. He and his team have successfully turned him from the devil incarnate to bubbly grandpa of internet teenagers.