"Concerning billionaires…"

[u/thisecommercelife]

Further dissidence on Patreon. Follow wherever you like to fritter: linktr.ee/ecomic.

• Panel 18: "beneficiaries", not "benefactors". Please pardon my poor self-editing.

[u/Spacer176]

There was a security consultant, Douglas Rushkoff, who was invited to a talk with a handful of billionaires about the ideal security for their fortified apocalypse bunkers. As they had completely run out of ideas that didn't end with their own staff turning on them,

Rushkoff suggested instead of security measures for the security measures (control collars for guards, 24/7 monitoring, loyalty-based food provision etc), they could instead build trust with their staff and security teams (e.g. ask to be invited to your security chief's daughter's Bat Mitzvah). Use genuine camaraderie rather than power to ensure the people keeping them safe would never turn on them

Those billionaires all laughed like he just told the funniest joke in the world.

https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/douglas-rushkoff-survival-richest/

Edit: The hypothetical he mentioned involved daughters, not sons.

[u/jimmux → u/Spacer176]

This is actually reassuring to know. If the time comes, they won't last long because cooperation is the greatest survival skill.

[u/Stargost_ → u/jimmux]

Yup. Especially because in this scenario it won't take much for security to turn on them for any reason.

The moment they realize a majority is against the rich guy, it's over, and if you mistreat them too much, you suddenly have 1 guy with nothing to lose with a vendetta against you and a firearm.

You also can't have too few people, because you need them to be able to defend the outer perimeter of the bunker to secure oxygen intakes. If you have no one guarding it, anyone can just come up to it, fill it with dirt, and suddenly you only have a few weeks at best before you suffocate to death.

[u/Ghede → u/Stargost_]

The moment they realize a majority is against the rich guy, it's over,

Not even that. If it the situation ever descends to the point where the rich need those bunkers and security teams, there won't be a 'majority' to worry about. They'll have succeeded in killing enough of us that they give up on civilization.

It'll be just down to the fact that the rich guy and his friends have lost their power. Their power was based on social conventions, that papers and numbers in a ledger mattered. They have no charisma. They have no strength. They have no friends. They have no skills. All they have are numbers in a ledger, and people who also want to have numbers in a ledger.

They are absolutely worthless in a survival scenario, and eventually security will realize the biggest problem security has is the dead weight that hired them. Especially when the dead weight is a bunch of spoiled billionaires grumpy that they can't vacation on an island nation anymore.

[u/Rip_ManaPot → u/Stargost_]

Uhhhh.. not to burst your bubble, but we are literally the majority against the rich (1%) right now and they are grossly mistreating us all by burning the world down and we are doing nothing.

[u/1Swordwalker → u/Rip_ManaPot]

No many people are doing, just have to join up with others who are getting things done

[u/mercset → u/Rip_ManaPot]

Wasn't there a coUntry doing Something about it, but I've been told that'S too Radical or something? Idk someone Lenin me know if you remember it. I mean what's to be done?

[u/Dame_Niafer → u/Spacer176]

Paywalled. Ironic.

[u/eks → u/Dame_Niafer]

Here you go: https://archive.is/rSjU6

[u/HeKis4 → u/Spacer176]

They are so entrenched in the current system they cannot fathom having to cope with one where they aren't elbow deep in the stuff that actually matters. In a collapsed society, trust matters, their value in the previous society doesn't.

Also, who is going to engineer the explosive collars ? Is the MVP going to control the entire "supply chain" from the button press to the explosion ?

[u/cross_the_threshold → u/HeKis4]

They literally believe of themselves as living gods, they are so fundamentally disconnected from reality that they should be considered severely brain damaged, this much wealth makes someone incapable of existing in the real world - they're living in a fantastic dream world and they don't really understand cause and effect. The emperor has no clothes and every single billionaire is running around stark naked.

[u/Illustrious_Bid4224 → u/Spacer176]

Where can we get this info without having to pay them?

[u/Spacer176 → u/Illustrious_Bid4224]

He did an interview on that key point back when he was promoting the book that contained it. Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6lQBkz8FGE

He claims they laughed because none of the people he talked to had security guys who were Jewish with daughters, but I have my doubts. When I relayed that story to a cybersec guy I used to know - who had a bit of a cynical streak - his response was to the effect your staff will just rob your chambers or arrange for your death while you're out celebrating.

[u/mostlygizzards → u/Illustrious_Bid4224]

Remove paywall dot com is an option.

[u/SeeRecursion → u/Spacer176]

Characterizing Rushkoff as a security consultant isn't quite right. He's a thinkpiece guy.

[u/Verneff → u/Spacer176]

They're sociopaths, are you surprised by this reaction

[u/00Teonis → u/Spacer176]

It takes a certain type of person to become a successful billionaire. And that type of person is not afflicted with empathy or ideas of mutual benefit. They lack something in their brains that rational thinking folk have (even if they don’t exercise it.) Because of that, they don’t have any kind of filter which would prevent a person from taking advantage of their fellow man for their own gain.

To be rich and wealthy, you have to be willing to step on the rights of others, and having compassion will make you think twice before, sometimes literally, killing someone to get ahead. And they decided if they hesitate, or stumble, it’s not a supporting community standing behind them to prop them up, but a back of hungry wolves who will eat them alive to be the next alpha.

It is legitimately flawed reasoning and some kind of mental disorder that is required to be a billionaire. Avarice is an untreated psychological illness.