doomsday

Prepper Paradise: A bit more than a million dollars could buy you this entire military installation

Mankind has always harbored a macabre fascination with the end of the world. Doomsday predictions litter humanity’s history, and for each new prophet promising the end of days, you could find a disappointed congregation, maligning the world’s existential persistence when his promises of fire and brimstone have failed to manifest.

For a long time, doomsday prophecies often centered around astrological events, transitional dates between centuries or millennia, and various religious beliefs regarding higher powers and their interventions in the affairs of man… but in recent decades, that spiritual sense of foreboding has been replaced by a very practical one. The Baby Boomer generation grew up under the very real specter of nuclear war, conducting duck and cover drills in school houses and devoting tax dollars to massive underground bunkers America hoped could deliver its government unscathed to the other side of the world’s end. For the first time in mankind’s history, the fear of the end of the world was finally matched by our capability to actually bring it about.

It’s little wonder, then, that many of the men and women that grew up training to climb under their desks in the event of a nuclear attack have now taken to an often-scoffed at hobby: “prepping.” Preppers come in a variety of sorts, of course — ranging from the pragmatic to the delusional — but if there’s one thing just about every prepper will agree on, it’s that money can help you “be prepared” for the apocalypse a whole lot faster than good intentions.

If you’re able to secure a remote piece of land and outfit it with all the things you need to survive before the world ends, you’re in pretty good shape by most prepper’s standards — but if you’ve got the passion and the pocket book, there are some options that even put that idea to shame. Options like a surplus military SATCOM II intelligence gathering and communications post in Scotland, for instance.

The property, which is listed for sale at just $1.22 million (a bargain compared to most hardened facilities), has actually been on the market for some time — meaning you may be able to haggle the owners down a little if you’re on the market for your own rural military installation, complete with air filtration system to protect you from nuclear, chemical, or biological attacks. The facility is even hardened against electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) that are known to render electronics unusable after a nuclear blast.

According to the listing:

SATCOM II Satellite Ground Listening Station is situated on the S side of the World War II airfield ( ) and B918 public road and set within a high double fenced compound. The Station stands on the former taxiway of the airfield.

Known locally as the ‘Golf Ball’ on account of the radome covered in fibre glass panels. The radome is linked by corridor to the equipment building and mess and recreation/office building. Within the ‘golf ball’ is a large dish antenna on a servo assisted rotating base, the mechanism allowing the dish to move up and down as well as around. The other buildings are connected by a main corridor which have NBC doors at each end. There is an emergency power generator room, containing two 180KW output diesel engines.

A MoD Police Post was built at a slightly later date near the main gate to guard and control the first fence line.

And in case your primary concern is nuclear attack, the sprawling 9 acre compound comes complete with a currently inactive NATO Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) early warning radar system aside from its complement of offices, garages, guard houses, living spaces and even recreational areas.

If all that isn’t enough to convince you that this property is just what you need to survive the end of days, the realtor points out that, until the world ends, this facility is also conveniently located near highway access for a short jaunt into town to resupply your stash of survival Twinkies. Check out the realtor’s listing if you think you may have found your new summer home.

Images courtesy of AmazingResults.com

Self Reliance & Preparedness | Precious Metals and The ‘End of The World’

Having an interest in history, I’ve been doing a good bit of reading on financial systems dating back to the Old Testament times (7th century BC) as well as more modern societies prior to fiat currencies (fiats are currencies declared by a Government to be valued at a certain amount but are not backed by any physical commodity). These include the Vikings (first known coins 995 A.D), ancient Romans (500 B.C), and ancient Chinese empire (770 B.C). The vast majority of currency in history has been based on the use of precious metals (PM) as an intermediate currency. The reasons are fairly simple:

Coinage is durable. There are still coins in existence from the above mentioned cultures. Even if a coin has a lifespan of no more than 100 years in circulation before needing to be re-minted, the precious metal it is made of still holds value. Chickens die, food spoils and guns rust. Gold doesn’t.
Fiat currencies fail. All fiat money is based on a governmental guarantee that your cash is worth something. It isn’t backed by gold, nor is it redeemable. When a government fails, all of that currency is paper. Look at Soviet Russia in the period of 1918-1921: hyperinflation ruined the ruble and it failed as a method of storing wealth. A mountain of those rubles would be worth whatever a mountain of toilet paper and firestarters is worth.

So I’d like to take a look at PM’s regarding “the end of the world as we know it” (TEOTWAWKI) from a few different angles. I am not advocating PM’s as a sole method of storing value. Prepping is about insurance: the more things you’re prepared for, the more likely when one of them befalls, you will be equipped to handle it. I’ll tackle such arguments as “you can’t eat gold” later.

Before The Fall

You run into two major theories here, both with historical precedent. Either you have a slow decline leading to spiraling hyperinflation before the whole mess crashes, or you have a major event that sends a massive number of people into the bronze age. (Note: I’m intentionally disregarding regional disasters such as major earthquakes or hurricanes. Those don’t directly cause currencies to fail, nor do they change PM’s value as a barter item.)

With a slow decline, your currency becomes less valuable by the month, day or hour (in extreme historical circumstance). PM’s purchased before the decline gain value in direct opposition to the failing currency. When we say the value of PM’s are up or down, we’re really saying the inverse: the dollar is down or up. The value of PM’s relative to the American dollar isn’t the same as the value of PM’s relative to the Yen or Euro. Notice when a country has financial troubles “we buy gold” signs pop up everywhere?

With a cataclysmic and rapid departure from the world we know, the likelihood of using your old currency to buy what you need is low. How much cash do you have in your pocket right now? Don’t count on using your ATM card when there is no internet. Silver and Gold have been treated as valuable since before the Roman empire was an itch in southern Europe’s skinny jeans.

During The Dark Times

Bad times are here. Maybe one country has fallen to accident, war or disaster. If it’s a superpower, the rest of the world will be feeling the crunch financially. In this scenario, the rough days could number in the years before a semblance of civility is restored nationwide and a new government is implemented. Humanitarian aid and multinational involvement would be likely if war is not a factor. PM’s are valuable in other countries right now, that wouldn’t change if they’re still up and running. A fistful of benjamins would be worth a fistful of nose blows. Food is something you will (shockingly) need to survive. Probably don’t want to trade much of that away… Ammo has uses defensive, offensive and for sustainability. That’s good for trading IF you really don’t need it. Ostensibly, nearly every item with barter value is directly related to survival.

A Brave New World

Take a look around the world today. Do you see any nations or regions that were thriving recently and now resemble a terrible Mad Max reality? Nope. Even with a full global meltdown, anything short of an extinction event will leave behind a significant number of people. Wherever there have been humans, there is a tendency towards grouping, commerce and mutual reliance. Don’t expect some long-running Book of Eli business. Even if that were to be a reality, there are a mass number of variables, too many to account for. A sharp brain and strong body are always valuable assets. If you’re looking past the big slump in the middle, what’s the plan for securing wealth now that will stay valuable until then?

I’m no definitive expert on this matter. This article is not the be-all-end-all conversation that will zip up every internet thread regarding PM’s. I am someone who has been in a country where the local fiat currency was nearly worthless. I have also been to a few countries where I exchanged for some of the local currency and now that currency no longer exists as legal tender. Frame it as a memento or give it to the kids to play with. It has no intrinsic value.

You Can’t Eat Gold

Now I’d like to give my take on some of the common arguments against having PM’s as one part of the prepping plan. I’m emphasizing that PM’s should be considered only one part of the solution because number one on the most heard arguments against PM’s is

“You can’t eat gold”. Right. I don’t want to eat gold. I want to eat food. I don’t want to trade away my food. I can’t eat bullets, but I can use them. I don’t want to get rid of those either. The main point of using currency/PM’s is to be able to store value when you’re not engaging in commerce or have no direct trade options. You have a lot of one item but are going hungry. You would like to acquire some of my many chickens. I have no need for that item you have many of, nor for an IOU. PM’s have been used widely though the last 9000 years of human history. Even if there is a system of commerce based on trade of goods and labor, do you think there won’t be even one person who thinks PM’s will be worth a trade?
“What are you gonna do, carry 30 lbs of silver around?” Nope. No more likely than carrying 4 extra guns to trade or herding a dozen chickens around in a nomadic lifestyle. A single .1 ounce gold coin is roughly the same weight at a penny (2.8 grams), yet worth about $121 bucks today. A 1 ounce gold coin is about the same weight as a pair of JFK $.50 pieces, yet worth about $1600 right now.
“Gold and silver aren’t valuable because they’re just shiny metals”. Thousand of years of human history would beg to differ. Even if you take out all space age and industrial uses, silver and gold are still essential in medical and dental uses.

In closing, I agree with the naysayers that “PM’s are only valuable only when we all agree they are. 9000 years of recorded human history says that someone will invariably think that they are, or will be, valuable still. PM’s do not replace beans, bullets or survival equipment. They sure don’t replace knowledge and skills. Precious metals give you a way to store wealth and a way to barter a nonessential item that can be easily transported and hidden.

Not the ‘preppers’ you see on TV: America’s wealthy take ‘prepping’ seriously

Depending on the circles you run in, the word “prepper” has different connotations. Its use in the media on shows with exaggerated premises about crackpots building camouflaged tree houses has made the idea of “being prepared” for disaster somewhat laughable, but among people that have spent some time in failed states, impoverished nations, or places with nefarious and brutal governments, “prepping” isn’t a hobby or a recent trend. It’s just a part of your day.

I don’t consider myself a “prepper,” but I’ve certainly been referred to as one in friendly conversations with my less security minded friends. If you’re the type of guy with extra water storage and some firepower, you’ve probably heard the same jokes:

“Well, when the zombie apocalypse comes, I’m heading to your house!”

Here in the United States, where we only pretend this week’s raging hashtag is the end of the world, the idea of being prepared for a bad situation seems laughable — after all, the police are a phone call away, the fire department doesn’t charge for their services, Netflix is streaming and your local Wal-Mart is fully stocked with everything you could ever need. By the standards of much of the world, the United States is a bountiful Utopia… what on earth could change that?

Well, honestly, it wouldn’t take much. Our confidence based economy relies on confidence. Our domestic missile defense apparatus relies on mutually assured destruction and the perception we cultivate of invulnerability, our ability to stop the spread of apocalyptic illnesses that once ravaged civilizations is based on antibiotics that are proving increasingly ineffective against new strains of old bacteria, and according to the U.S. government, Russia has already successfully infiltrated the American power grid on more than one occasion. I don’t want to misrepresent our current situation: the wheels of a foreseeable apocalypse are not necessarily in motion — but just like carrying a firearm, being prepared is about mitigating the risk of possibilities. I don’t expect needing to use my firearm as I run errands this afternoon but if the situation were to arise, I’d be ready.

While popular culture and internet memes might lead you to believe that “prepping” for a large-scale disaster is an exclusive interest for the paranoid or the mentally unhinged, you may be surprised to learn that America’s wealthy and elite have long taken the possibility of an existential threat seriously — and with good reason. History has shown that the wealthiest among us tend not to fair well when the impoverished masses grow desperate.

For the moderately rich, high dollar “survival communities” have begun springing up all over the country — often in converted missile silos or other kinds of underground bunkers. Depending on your community of choice, you can find all the amenities of modern living deep beneath the earth’s surface, and even a few you may not have — like a personal movie theater or indoor swimming pool. Some of these bunker-condos can go for millions of dollars, which is a pretty steep price to pay for a summer home you hope you’ll never need to visit, but it’s important to consider the scale of wealth when dismissing the idea. If you’re worth billions, a measly million dollars may be a small price to pay for peace of mind.

The Survival Condo Project builds luxury suites deep inside former Atlas missile silos, complete with LCD screen windows that can depict any image you want to pretend you’re looking out at while the word above you burns. (Survival Condo Project)

But what about the super rich? Well, they’re just as interested in making it through a disaster as the rest of us, they just do it with a great deal more panache. Some have custom built homes designed around protecting their families from all sorts of dangerous situations – others, like the owners of the very Wal-Marts so many people plan to raid when things go bad, take things even further. After the terror attacks of 9/11, the Walton family built a massive family bunker in Bentonville, Arkansas. Little is known about the interior of the facility, but the exterior, adorned with concrete barriers, razor wire and full-time security detail suggests that the Waltons believe “prepping” to be a worthy investment. They’re far from the only billionaires that feel that way.

A reinforced bunker mansion under construction near Atlanta (courtesy of Sotheby’s International Realty)

“You just need so many things to actually ride out the apocalypse,” Former Facebook product manager Antonio García Martínez told the New Yorker. “I think people who are particularly attuned to the levers by which society actually works understand that we are skating on really thin cultural ice right now.”

Martínez purchased a large plot of land in the Pacific Northwest, and while he hasn’t revealed the extent of his preparations, he acknowledges that it is well equipped with solar and diesel generators, survival equipment, and all the firepower he believes he’d need to defend his stake.

Steve Huffman, the co-founder of the popular website Reddit has even gone under the knife to help prepare for a possible apocalypse. As a part of his preparations, he underwent Lasik to correct his vision.

“If the world ends — and not even if the world ends, but if we have trouble — getting contacts or glasses is going to be a huge pain in the ass,” he explained. “Without them, I’m f–ked.”

He also has his own bunker, complete with utilitarian motorcycles he believes will allow him to get around traffic while evacuating from his home in San Francisco.

“I think, to some degree, we all collectively take it on faith that our country works, that our currency is valuable, the peaceful transfer of power — that all of these things that we hold dear work because we believe they work,” says Huffman. “While I do believe they’re quite resilient, and we’ve been through a lot, certainly we’re going to go through a lot more.”

Of course, just because these folks are wealthy doesn’t mean they’re onto something the rest of us aren’t. The disasters America’s elites are preparing for are as diverse as their revenue streams. Bill Gates, for instance, is confident that a massive disaster in the form of new unstoppable diseases is on the horizon.

“Whether it occurs by a quirk of nature or at the hand of a terrorist, epidemiologists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year,” Gates wrote in an op-ed for Business Insider last year. “And they say there is a reasonable probability the world will experience such an outbreak in the next 10-15 years.”

There may be no way to know that a large-scale disaster is headed for you, but it never hurts to have a plan, do some training, and put a little thought into the possibility that life may not always be as easy as it is right now. The term “prepper” may have a bit of a negative connotation, but connotations won’t matter much if you find yourself struggling to survive in the wake of calamity.

Feature image courtesy of the Survival Condo Project

Self Reliance & Preparedness | Precious Metals and The “End of The World”

Coinage is durable. There are still coins in existence from the above mentioned cultures. Even if a coin has a lifespan of no more than 100 years in circulation before needing to be re-minted, the precious metal it is made of still holds value. Chickens die, food spoils and guns rust. Gold doesn’t.
Fiat currencies fail. All fiat money is based on a governmental guarantee that your cash is worth something. It isn’t backed by gold, nor is it redeemable. When a government fails, all of that currency is paper. Look at Soviet Russia in the period of 1918-1921: hyperinflation ruined the ruble and it failed as a method of storing wealth. A mountain of those rubles would be worth whatever a mountain of toilet paper and firestarters is worth.

Before The Fall

During The Dark Times

A Brave New World

You Can’t Eat Gold

“You can’t eat gold”. Right. I don’t want to eat gold. I want to eat food. I don’t want to trade away my food. I can’t eat bullets, but I can use them. I don’t want to get rid of those either. The main point of using currency/PM’s is to be able to store value when you’re not engaging in commerce or have no direct trade options. You have a lot of one item but are going hungry. You would like to acquire some of my many chickens. I have no need for that item you have many of, nor for an IOU. PM’s have been used widely though the last 9000 years of human history. Even if there is a system of commerce based on trade of goods and labor, do you think there won’t be even one person who thinks PM’s will be worth a trade?
“What are you gonna do, carry 30 lbs of silver around?” Nope. No more likely than carrying 4 extra guns to trade or herding a dozen chickens around in a nomadic lifestyle. A single .1 ounce gold coin is roughly the same weight at a penny (2.8 grams), yet worth about $121 bucks today. A 1 ounce gold coin is about the same weight as a pair of JFK $.50 pieces, yet worth about $1600 right now.
“Gold and silver aren’t valuable because they’re just shiny metals”. Thousand of years of human history would beg to differ. Even if you take out all space age and industrial uses, silver and gold are still essential in medical and dental uses.

Prepping for the Apocalypse? Take a look at the unfinished $14.7 million bunker home on sale near Atlanta

Call it paranoia, flights of fancy or good old-fashioned preparedness, but in recent years more and more Americans have taken to stocking up on supplies, taking a second look at their home security, and keeping an eye on the horizon for any signs of an impending apocalypse. Some psychologists argue that our growing infatuation with the end of days has to do with a kind of freedom allotted to those fighting to survive; like the call of the wild, beckoning us from our lives full of credit scores and social obligations.

Others have a less academic, but perhaps more pragmatic explanation: it’s because things are getting pretty scary out there.

North Korea is simply the latest nation to join the once-exclusive nuclear club, and here within the United States, terror attacks and civil unrest have reignited old fears about riots in the streets and enemies attacking from within. Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, you’ve likely heard some like-minded friends pontificate about things like a “new revolution,” as though our political team-picking is meant for physical conflict rather than an ideological one. Even the most level-headed among us can occasionally get swept up in stories about Nazis fighting Communists in the town square, as though we’re supposed to choose a side in a battle between lunatics. Even as violent crime statistics remain at historic lows, high-profile incidents like the mass shooting in Las Vegas last year leave us feeling vulnerable to attack, worried about our loved ones, and longing for a bit of security.

And if money is no object, you can get a whole lot more than “a bit.”

The “Rice House,” located just a few miles outside of Atlanta, was recently listed for sale on the high-end realty site, Sotheby’s. The 36,000 square foot, eight bedroom, nine bath mansion sits on three and a half acres of wooded property and comes complete with all the amenities one might expect from a multi-million dollar home, but for the (admittedly whopping) price tag of $14.7 million, you also get something harder to put a price tag on: peace of mind. The Rice House is far more than just another fancy house: some security experts are calling it the “safest home in America.”

Ballistic rated doors compliment steel reinforced, high-strength concrete walls.

What does it take to earn that distinction? For starters, the entire facility was designed by architect Al Corbi, who previously specialized in building secure structures for the Department of Justice. It comes equipped with an infinity pool, three kitchens, an indoor shooting range, a bowling alley and private theater… as well as steel reinforced concrete walls, ballistic doors designed to sustain fire from 7.62 rounds, a self-sustaining 15,000 square foot bunker complete with well water, secret entrances and a garage so secure it’s actually listed as a “car vault.” That vault, of course, is large enough to comfortably store 30 cars, and had a secret entrance hidden behind a waterfall.

“This is a home where you could put a $20 million painting on the wall and sleep comfortably at night,” said listing broker Paul Wegener, of Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty. “The same goes for your family.”

The complex’s near $15 million price tag is actually a bit of a bargain, considering the $30 million the previous owner invested in building his own personal bat cave, but if you were hoping for a move-in-ready fortress, it’s not quite there yet either. According to Wegener, the home still needs somewhere between $3 and $5 million invested to complete the project.

The address of the house is not disclosed in the listing, though it does state that it can be found inside the Country Club of the South, a gated community that has been home to a number of celebrities, including Whitney Houston and Allen Iverson.

Originally published on SOFREP and written by ALEX HOLLINGS

*Images courtesy of Sotheby’s International Realty