Anybody else been following Vivos? The company that wants to build a network of deluxe doomsday disaster shelters built (when they're built, that is) to withstand 50-megaton bombs, mag-10 earthquakes, and the like? Oh, yeah, it will cost you $50K per adult for the pleasure (hey, just a measly $25K for the kiddies). Read more about it, including an interview I did with the company founder, here.

Do you think this guy's company has a shot?

It seems unlikely that the company will be successful, and I mean no offense to you personally.

$50k per adult actually seems like an extremely low price for what is offered. The system must have its own power supply, plumbing, communications means, ventilation, water purification, on-site engineers and repairmen, etc. I'm highly skeptical you can make such a system for $50k per adult, and I'm highly skeptical that such a system will work properly when it matters. Plus, there is no surefire way of testing the system.

Meanwhile, $50k is a lot of money to pay for something that will likely never have any use in a person's lifetime. So, the company must market to people who are rich (but not too rich), not too bright (or on drugs) and paranoid. The target customers can't be too rich because the super wealthy can hire their own engineers to make their own. Also, the target customers can't be too bright because smart people will question the hell out this thing, and they'll discover flaws. Basically, I think the target market is too small for the company to make a profit, unless this whole thing is a scam...

Off topic, if a 50-megaton bomb hit close enough to me such that I would need one of these shelters, then I think I would be ready to meet my maker. Being vaporized by an initial blast seems like a peaceful way to go out.

No.

His business plan is based on the 2012 Mayan doomsday prophecy.

I wouldn't be an investor.

The survival condo is not a new concept, it has been tried before and failed.

Offense to me personally? Don't worry, none taken. Did you read the interview? The more I think about it, the more I think he'll probably take some money in--there's always a few--but that we won't see any doomsday shelters built. Vicino is keying in on a lot of unease out there, and he's hoping there's some really rich guys who will plunk down $50K...just in case.

Personally, the idea of being stuck in a basement with 200 other people fighting over the last of the sloppy joes is not my idea of fun.

To be honest, and totally non-offensive, I don't think that any rational company should be trying to use the Mayans as their main marketing ploy.

The Mayans did NOT say there would be a catastrophe in 2012. In fact, there was typically a CELEBRATION when a long count cycle ended. reference I can picture some Mayan argument - "should we continue working on the calendar?" "Are you crazy? we are so far ahead already..."

The modern Maya don't have a stance on this, probably because the mayan calendar BEGAN in 3114 BC. Its generally accepted that the world did not start in 3114 BC. But of course, we are encouraged to believe that the Mayans were right about the end but not the beginning. Those pesky details just spoil the fun.

The calendar on my fridge ends on Dec.31, 2010... but I suspect the world will not end then, either...

Anyone who does even a few moments of research would probably not be interested in paying $50k...

$50K a head to get through doomsday sounds like a deal. Problem is that 'doomsday', or similar term, has been predicted hundred, if not thousands, of times. And so far, as far as I can tell, none of the predictions have panned out.

I sometimes come across a bomb, or fallout shelter, from back in the day. A lot of them got built in the late 50s and 60s. There is something sad about a bomb shelter moldering away unused.

A lot of the original survivalists are getting old. The nuclear war/ fall of civilization/ economic collapse, that so many thought was just around the corner failed to materialize. Some who squatted in their bunker knee deep in beans and bullets are selling off their armory a piece at a time to pay for a home healthcare nurse to come in a couple times a week so the laundry gets done, the house cleaned and meals cooked. A lot of anti-government sorts, and not a few teabaggers, are living off Social Security and Medicaid. Time moved on and somewhere along the way they/we got old.



Picked up from:
http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2010/04/clock_quotes_633.php

On the other hand a fallout shelter is, as long as it is high enough not to flood, pretty good for hurricanes and tornadoes. Kept in good repair and well equipped a shelter has value. I'm just not sure that you need invest $50k a head to get a decent shelter.

My parents installed a fallout shelter back in the 1950s. Since we lived in tornado country, it made sense. I wonder if it is still around....

for $50k I could make something in my back yard that would cover the bases an probably be alot more comfortable and at least I would know that it's build and ready and that I wouldnt be banging on the door begging to get in cause I've been shut out. Another thing is people will know where it is and they will try to get in any way possible and depending on where it's located might just be impossible to get to. Add in the fact that people will want to suddenly be able to bring aunt ruth and cousin bob cause they were visiting and you've got a cluster---- in the making. Watch the Twilight Zone episode The Shelter and imagine it 1000x's over with people with guns who's got nothing to loose. Also if nothing happens I can use the shelter in my back yard for a root cellar and game room and storage which is kinda hard to do with a place far from home and probably wont be opened till doomsday.

Can my family vacation in the disaster shelter whilst waiting for the apocalypse, or is it a "do not open until Doomsday shelter"?

Not to mention, if I'm not allowed there until TEOTWAWKI, how do I know it's all set and ready to go, or that my unit hasn't been sold to hundreds of others?

Who am I going to go to if Armageddon starts and I'm not happy?