Peter Thiel, Trump Adviser, Has a Backup Country: New Zealand

I used to live in and grew up in New Zealand, if you like the outdoors there's no where better in the world, it also has fantastic internet connectivity with commonly available fibre to the home and has had decent internet for years - when I moved to Australia 5 ½ years ago I was amazed - I went from 200Mbit down 80Mbit upload to 6mbit down and 0.5 upload in a brand new apartment, I had to move house twice before finally getting on to what they call(ed) the NBN which was fibre but limited to 100/20, and which has since been shitcanned back to copper by the recent anti-internet government. So if you want good internet, hiking, skiing and riding motorbikes New Zealand is great. But it has a high cost of living, low income and yes, the cities are small and get old fast, there's also a bad drinking culture and it's not awfully racially diverse. So there's ups and downs just like everywhere.

That's a tactic of the Russian oligarchs, they make money on Russian resources through personal connections utilizing lawlessness and inequality and they don't care about the country and its people's welfare at all since their children and backup properties are in high-tax, law-abiding Europe.

I see parallels here. Personal connections with the autocratic powers in an increasingly unequal society are very profitable. But you always need a backup plan in a safer place.

Slightly less inflammatory heading this time