Will Billionaires Survive a true Apocalypse?

[Stomper]

 

[Stomper]

That was my biggest problem with management; they paid me 6 figure salaries for my expertise in something they could not do themselves (or would not deign to do), but when I told them something they didn't like, or didn't want to hear, they would ignore it and it would inevitably cause them problems later. At DTNA, it cost them millions to ignore our advice - but when push came to shove, it was us that got laid off and not the management. DTNA had way to many management layers and personnel, all of which had their little fiefdoms and pet projects they proposed to get them promotions and pay raises.

I've worked for companies with that kind of "cannibalistic" culture, and they SUCK! I assure you, the company I work for is a "unicorn" among corporations… and we're over 500 employees ATM.

 

[The Heretic]

Here's a story that popped up on my FB feed. I thought this is the kind of person who makes the USA what it is. Sure, some billionaires do good too, but it is people like this who come up from nothing who are indispensable.

Here's a blast from the past. I must of been 16. Found this picture and several others going through an old box at my moms house tonight. After I took a picture of this Polaroid so that I could upload it I noticed who was sitting in the cab of the truck. His name was Emil Richards. What a great guy, every time he came into the yard he'd teach me about tying down loads and a lot of other trucking related stuff. I'd load his truck then help him tie down, and tarp his load before he would roll out. He purchased this White Freightliner brand new, he even went to the manufacturing facility and watched it being built. He sold it to the company we worked for on the condition that he'd be the only one to drive it until he retired. He lived somewhere in the San Joaquin Valley, maybe Modesto, or Merced.

This guy was the real deal, he did all his own repairs to this truck. He once told me how he broke down on the grapevine and had to rebuild the engine in a turn out somewhere up there on top by Fort Tejon . He said he had a little campfire and cooked his dinner over it every night and other drivers, and friends would bring him food and parts while he worked on his truck. That's the way it was in his day, and even at the start of my trucking career. If you seen somebody broke down, you stopped to help them. Every box on his truck and trailer was meticulously organized. I remember in the drivers side cab box there was a one inch impact gun mounted to the rear cab wall for doing his own tire repairs. He came up in trucking back when drivers didn't go to shops, they fixed everything themselves, right where they broke down. It was guys like this who worked for Goforth FreightLines that helped me get started in trucking. When I went to work for this trucking company I was 16 years old and nobody knew it but I had just became homeless. My parent had lost everything and split up so I went off on my own. I was sleeping across the front seat of my old pickup every night. When everybody would go home I just locked myself inside the yard, and before anybody came in I'd open the gate and start the coffee pot. I was always the first guy on the job.

All the drivers at this company told me I wouldn't last more then three weeks. I think they had a pool going on when I'd quit. They told me that being a yard boy was the hardest dirtiest job in trucking, and everyone before me quit within the first couple of weeks. And at first these drivers, and the dispatcher Poncho would give me crap everyday. What none of them knew was, I had nowhere to go, and just saying I'd quit only made me more determined to stay. It was a great experience and everyone at the company I became good friends with them.

The stuff the drivers, and mechanics taught me there has helped me throughout my entire trucking career, and continues to help me today. Before they'd let me even drive a truck they taught me how to rebuild every part of them. They taught me how to tie down pretty much every type of freight their was. And before they took me down to get my class A license, I spent a few months backing every truck the company owned into their small yard after work each night. I got really good at backing. These guys had me well prepared for hitting the road.

What were my duties as a yard boy? Every hard nasty job their was. I greased trucks, steam cleaned trucks, checked brake adjustment, did all the tire repairs, and this is back when we still had split rims, which were commonly referred to as widow makers. I re floored trailers, loaded and unloaded trucks and when ever I had any free time I was leaning over the mechanics shoulders eager to learn all they could teach me. At first I made just barely enough money to eat on. All my cloths would get covered in grease in muck each day so on Saturday night when there was nobody around I'd lay my cloths out in a flatbed trailer and use the steam cleaner to do my laundry. That steam cleaner took pretty much all the color out of my cloths. And I'd use the garden hose to take a shower every night. Life was rough there for awhile but I was no quitter.

The old man Emil Richards in the drivers seat of this truck. A few years after this picture was taken. I was told that he pulled into a rough part of Los Angeles late one night and found a place to park near where he was going to deliver. Sometime in the middle of the night he was robbed and beaten up so bad that he ended up spending the rest of his days in a nursing home. He was the kinda guy that would do anything to help you out. I'll never forget him and how helped me.

I ended up being the last employee this company ever had. Years later they went bankrupt. The company couldn't even pay me my last check so the owner told me to take everything I wanted out of the shop, and tire shed. I took all the good tires, tarps, and sold them and got a lot more then my pay check would've been. I also took the hardware bins and I still have some of that hardware left today. I've been using it for fixing and building stuff all these years. There's not much of it left.

 

[arakboss]

@arakboss, how many profiles do you have!?

Just one, I'm OG.

 

[coop44]

Billionaire BBQ, what else would they be good for?

 

[Longwalkhome]

I have never lived through a true apocalypse, what will it look like? Will the elite fill their storehouse full of food and let everyone starve? Will the elite start a nuclear war and kill most off and starve the rest? Will the elite use biological warfare on the population to depopulate the planet? Will an asteroid hit the planet and kill half the people?

Will the survivors seek justice and go after the elite?

What does an apocalypse look like?

 

[Stomper]

Billionaire BBQ, what else would they be good for?

Golden sandbags……

 

[Stomper]

I have never lived through a true apocalypse, what will it look like? Will the elite fill their storehouse full of food and let everyone starve? Will the elite start a nuclear war and kill most off and starve the rest? Will the elite use biological warfare on the population to depopulate the planet? Will an asteroid hit the planet and kill half the people?

Will the survivors seek justice and go after the elite?

What does an apocalypse look like?

I think it starts with four riders on wild boars…. or something.

 

[Longwalkhome]

What government will survive an apocalypse? With no government how will the rule of law be prosecuted? Will life be all local?

Just curious what you guys think.

 

[Jay Walk]

The Elite will be fine, notice when they say things like "The population will suffer" they are not talking about themselves.

 

[Camelfilter]

What government will survive an apocalypse? With no government how will the rule of law be prosecuted? Will life be all local?

Just curious what you guys think.

Apocalypse has happened before (numerous times), and will happen again. Will such happen AGAIN in our lifetimes? I hope not.

That's what I think.

 

[Diamondback]

My prediction, those who have treated their employees well will come out better than those who treated the help as peons--the classic example is members of the French aristocracy in their Revolution who survived because their peasants had been treated well enough to be worth standing up for en-masse even in the face of Robespierre's reign of terror.

Sort of like why I always tip well unless I have good cause, I want people to remember me positively so that they keep going the extra mile when they see me walk in the door and tell their coworkers "take good care of this guy, he tips well."

 

[Longwalkhome]

I am thinking that who survives depends on who survives.

 

[CamoDeafie]

What government will survive an apocalypse? With no government how will the rule of law be prosecuted? Will life be all local?

Just curious what you guys think.

Local, maybe State, definitely Federal governments. Depends on the severity and the populations will, behavior. Strong religious communities (Amish, Mennonite, Baptist, Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, etc) are more likely to thrive and weather through things that could end countries. More likely local-State level governments would change a bit according to the people in the areas, and then depending on how friendly people are.. perhaps the Federal government would remain much the same with just some aspects differing.

 

[Aero Denezol]

It's a fun conversation for the campfire. If everything does go to hell most of us will die without our medication or prescription eyeglasses. Most of the rest will get sniped while picking berries or taking a dump. Everyone will turn into Viet Cong and survival will be mostly luck. And yes the rich will survive longer than most of us. They already do live better and survive longer than most of us. Just look at poor third-world countries. All of them are run by a handful of rich and powerful people.

 

[jayR]

From an article about Oliver Anthony's recent concert. Not a bible thumper, just seemed to relate to the question in this thread.

 

[Tlock]

From an article about Oliver Anthony's recent concert. Not a bible thumper, just seemed to relate to the question in this thread.

View attachment 1470156

If anyone hasn't listened to that song the should! Rich men north of Richmond, the man speaks the truth

 

[Longwalkhome]

Local, maybe State, definitely Federal governments. Depends on the severity and the populations will, behavior. Strong religious communities (Amish, Mennonite, Baptist, Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, etc) are more likely to thrive and weather through things that could end countries. More likely local-State level governments would change a bit according to the people in the areas, and then depending on how friendly people are.. perhaps the Federal government would remain much the same with just some aspects differing.

I am not sure of the outcome because as a country we are really divided. Depending on the apocalypse I think there is a possibility that people still really hate each other when the government loses power over them. We have schools teaching racism so what happens when government collapses?

Big cities won't be able to feed themselves nor will small cities. Who will decide who gets the food? In a divided nation the outcome will be decided by force in my opinion. However like I said, I have never lived through a apocalypse.

 

[CamoDeafie]

I am not sure of the outcome because as a country we are really divided. Depending on the apocalypse I think there is a possibility that people still really hate each other when the government loses power over them. We have schools teaching racism so what happens when government collapses?

Big cities won't be able to feed themselves nor will small cities. Who will decide who gets the food? In a divided nation the outcome will be decided by force in my opinion. However like I said, I have never lived through a apocalypse.

Just gotta look at the Northern Ireland troubles, Lebanon in the 80s, Bosnia/Kosovo/Serbia in the 90s, and the never ending conflicts in North Africa/Middle East; particularly between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. On the other hand.... Russia immediately after the dissolution of the Sovuet Union? But I am saying... depending on the culture and religious groups, some local governments would be okay, just State-Fed level would look quite a bit different

 

[Aero Denezol]

Just gotta look at the Northern Ireland troubles, Lebanon in the 80s, Bosnia/Kosovo/Serbia in the 90s, and the never ending conflicts in North Africa/Middle East; particularly between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. On the other hand.... Russia immediately after the dissolution of the Sovuet Union? But I am saying... depending on the culture and religious groups, some local governments would be okay, just State-Fed level would look quite a bit different

To your point, we would probably see a dissolution of the Federal government and balkanization of the United States into smaller like minded regions that are easier to govern. Assuming there was not a radioactive cloud circling the earth.

Anthropologists have found under population 500 (roughly) people are able to govern themselves. Over 500 and the strong begin to take advantage of the weak, i.e., enslavement, theft, use of force, etc.