Worried about finding a proper bunker to wait out the end of the world? Let us help you with your bunker shopping. Blogger Evan explores the phenomenon of companies filling the market with apocalypse-proof bunkers.
By Evan Spry
Eleven feet under the ground, somewhere in New Zealand, there’s a secret multi-million dollar survival shelter that Gary Lynch, general manager of Rising S Company, will tell us is owned by someone he’s not allowed to reveal. Rising S Co, like many other survival-shelter manufacturers, are getting clients in New Zealand. Because of this, New Zealand is seeing a rise in bunker manufacturing. Bloomberg.com reports, “The underground global shelter network Vivos already has installed a 300-person bunker in the South Island, north of Christchurch, said Robert Vicino, the founder of the California-based company.” The tech elites and billionaires of our world are literally fleeing to New Zealand to live in real life Hobbit Holes. What does this say about the current state of the world? In the past few years, Rising S Co has “…planted about 10 private bunkers in New Zealand…” (Bloomberg.com). They also said that “The average cost is $3 million for a shelter weighing about 150 tons, but it can easily go as high as $8 million with additional features like luxury bathrooms, game rooms, shooting ranges, gyms, theaters and surgical beds” (Bloomberg.com).
With our world’s current social and economic inequalities only increasing, we are seeing more examples of inequities such as these crazy kiwi survival bunkers. Fortunately, mass bunker-buying is not a new thing. Latimes.com reports, “tens of thousands of Americans built private fallout shelters as Cold War tensions rose in the early 1960s.” This doesn’t mean that an increase in bunker buying is a good sign. Evidently, we are currently going through tough times, and it does not make sense to use the money that you have left to buy a high-tech and safe place for you and your family. This is nice for your family, but it is a little pessimistic and selfish to spend millions on a fallout bunker. I know it’s a lot to ask, but instead of spending money on bunkers, people could invest in bettering the world. People could do so much with those millions of dollars, and, let’s be real, we won’t need to live in bunkers for at least another half-decade.
I couldn’t find anything about the economic effect of these bunker-buying sprees, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt the Kiwi economy. However, it’s kinda weird having an American move to the neighborhood, only they’re at a secluded bunker at the top of the hill.
Anyways, I guess if you want to waste your money on a high-tech bunker, you should look 2,500 miles southeast of Australia in the land of hobbits, wizards, and dwarves.
Apocalypse Editor: Erik Bearman
https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2020-03-23/rich-are-running-from-coronavirus