Text/Fast Wind
In Silicon Valley, many people will encounter Musk, Zuckerberg, and Larry Page walking alone, looking like ordinary people who are defenseless in their daily lives, without armed bodyguards wearing headphones.
The question is, don't these billionaires who are rich enough to be afraid of robbery or kidnapping of themselves or their families?
First, let's get to know the billionaires.
Billionaires are very rare, with just over 2,200 billionaires worldwide (with a net worth of more than $1 billion), nearly half of which come from the United States, China and India. Most billionaires may not have heard of their names, because they are very low-key, and only a few people like to show their faces, such as Musk, Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Buffetk, who are at the top of technology and public opinion, as well as some "upstarts" from the entertainment, media and fashion industries, in fact, most billionaires run traditional manufacturing, mining, agriculture, investment companies, insurance companies, freight companies, and so on.
Keeping a low profile and living in simplicity is undoubtedly the first way for many billionaires to protect themselves.
Second, billionaires have more security than the average person can imagine.
A group of big men in suits and leather shoes, wearing sunglasses and headphones, with an average height of 1 meter 9 or 120 kilograms, stand nearby with crossed arms, and scan the surroundings of their employers like falcons — that's the movie. The real billionaires all have a professional security team, not necessarily strong men with arm tattoos, but guys with professional intelligence and military backgrounds. They may be unremarkable, but they're the kind of people you never want to mess with.
In addition to the necessary 24-hour personal bodyguard (not necessarily close, depending on the situation), the security team will also monitor the life and travel of billionaires' families, monitor the private information of friends, nannies, drivers (cameras, phones, emails, etc.), and create a "security barrier" around the employer, killing any security risks in the cradle. Correspondingly, their equipment and salaries are ridiculously high, and the average rich can afford to hire them. Take Zuckerberg, who attaches the most importance to security, his security cost in 2021 is as high as $27 million.
Billionaires' offices and homes have the most expensive security systems, such as biometric access control systems. These systems use biometrics to grant access to specific locations, such as eyes, fingers, DNA, or faces, that are nearly impossible for outsiders to enter. There are also more cautious billionaires who have installed luxurious bulletproof security bunkers and secret passages in their homes, even if nuclear war breaks out.
On the other hand, kidnapping a billionaire is not a good idea for gangsters.
Billionaires have private jets, private yachts, and don't wander the streets with millions of dollars in cash in their pockets, and most of them have an Unlimited American Express black card or something like that is enough to buy anything they want and enjoy the highest lifestyle benefits.
Even if you crack the security system of a billionaire mansion, you'll find no point when you go inside. You can't find a large amount of cash, and the wall is a famous multimillion-dollar painting, but you can't sell it because everyone knows where the painting came from.
Kidnapping a well-known billionaire like Musk is very stupid. Nothing more than the chance to get exclusive autographs and selfies. Kidnapping a billionaire immediately triggers an unprecedented law enforcement intervention around the world, with every politician, prosecutor, and law enforcement official acting because they want the billionaires to owe them a favor and other rich people to know they're safe.
Considering the whole world is chasing you, you will be caught in a matter of days. There can be no flukes.
However, if you get caught, you're in luck.
Have you ever considered one thing: billionaires don't become billionaires because of honesty and kindness.
Money means power, it means great power. Billionaires have tentacles across most industries, including political, business and military organizations, as well as some top private investigators (who specialize in black work), and if you offend a billionaire, you may face the SAS, Alpha group-level elite, who have no intention of putting you on trial alive. Don't be silly, no billionaire will wait for the FBI to investigate clues and negotiate as he did in the movie after his family is kidnapped.
If you kill the hostages, you and your entire circle of friends and family will likely disappear from the face of the earth.
Therefore, there are so few incidents of robbery and kidnapping of billionaires, because in terms of cost performance, robbing ordinary people is less risky and more profitable.