There are more and more "preppers": amid pandemics, wars, climate change fears, the world's rich and powerful are investing in underground bunkers to protect themselves in the event of a possible nuclear war or climate catastrophe. Those who don't have time for this, accumulate stocks.
The bunker construction fever is spreading not only in the United States of America, but also in Romania, but the fact is that an investment of 70,000 euros does not create spectacular shelters like the ones we see in the movies.
The strange fashion clearly came from the United States of America, from the circles of the top rich there.
After all, according to the news, Mark Zuckerberg, the head of the giant company Meta, which owns social sites such as Facebook and Instagram, is building a half-square-kilometer bunker under his property on Kauai, one of the eight islands of the Hawaiian Islands.
And his example is contagious.
The owner of Atlas Survival Shelters, a company that builds such shelters, recently told the Hollywood Reporter that news of Zuckerberg's project has inspired other very wealthy people to invest in similar facilities.
Another billionaire interested in bunkers is Peter Thiel, the former head of PayPal. He tried to build a larger shelter in New Zealand in 2022, but did not get the necessary permits.
According to sources, there is a bunker under every house of Bill Gates, one of the founders of Microsoft.
Billionaires who can afford it also invest in such projects. Zack Nelson, owner of the tech YouTube account JerryRigEverything with over 8.46 million subscribers, also built his own homemade bunker. He also showed his followers the construction steps. Robert Vicino, an official at a California-based company that makes bunkers, told the Financial Times that orders were up 500 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, and the number of people contacting his company, Vivos, to inquire about the products was up 2,000 percent. .
At the same time, there are also companies in Romania that build bunkers.
However, we should not imagine the shelters like, for example, the bunker appearing in the closing scene of the recently released movie Leave the World Behind starring Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke, but we are talking about much more modest shelters.
It is a bunker with a floor area of 16 square meters, without furniture or sanitary facilities. And the price is still €70,000 at Smits Industry.
Its executive director, Sorin Bălan, said that these shelters are created by people with higher than average incomes. “Most of them come from the business sector and most of them are construction contractors,” he pointed out. He also revealed that the company, which offers many other services in addition to bunkers, sells 6-7 shelters every year.
The expert also talked about how in big cities like Bucharest, people with better financial means are interested in bunkers, but they cannot build them because there is not enough space in their garden.
Sheltered homes are usually built on the outskirts of cities or in areas outside cities.
At the same time, there is another category that wants to be prepared in case of a possible apocalypse, but does not necessarily have bunkers or underground shelters because they cannot afford it. They stockpile supplies and equipment in basements and/or pantries to last as long as possible in the event of another pandemic or world war.
They are the "preppers", i.e. those who prepare.
Their number increased rapidly during the pandemic, and will probably continue to increase following the two major wars currently taking place, and today they also advertise courses where you can learn survival techniques and practices.
Cover image: Some people build bunkers, others just stock up
Source: Pixabay.com
