Here in the early days of the 21st century, the greatest luxury that one can properly purchase isn’t the yacht. As I stated in a previous article, the one thing that billionaires are truly expending their funds on is the same thing most of us would expend our funds on given the same opportunities1.

Bunkers.

That’s not to say there aren’t real concerns, but what the billionaire class has found themselves expending their tremendous wealth on is space. Space is the great luxury of this generation. A simple home which one can own (insofar as perpetual payment to a political entity counts as “ownership”), is one of the largest expenditures an individual will ever commit to. It’s also well out of the reach of the majority of Millennials and more than a few boomers2. (Gen Alpha, ya’ll are f*ed here).

Looking at it from the outside, however, it’s apparent that one of the greatest luxuries individuals expend capital on in the United States (and much of the world) is space. That’s space away from other people, space away from the technocratic surveillance system, space away from those who continuously plague our urban centers.

The ability to get out and achieve a place of your own, a king of his meager trailer park lot, is what many Americans aspire to. In places like Big Sky Montana and Jackson Wyoming, the cost of a mere home is sufficient that only the actual upper class can afford to live there. What these locations offer is space away from the plebs, and space to enjoy (an artificially curated) nature away from human machinations.

From the poorest laborer to the millionaire class and well into the billionaire class, independence by asserting dominance over a space is the luxury nearly everyone is after, fighting for, hoarding, or attempting to regulate into the public trust. It has been this way since 1964 at least. Prior to that, empty land and isolated homesteads did not hold nearly the premium that they do today.

Regardless of the true reason, it’s the homesteaders, the wealthy gated communities, the billionaire bunkers, and the digital nomads or our wildernesses that capture the conception of setting oneself apart from the body politic. Living in a village in the wilderness does not mean you know everyone who lives there; it means you get to be far away from the rules, the regulators, and the rabble-rousers.

I take the time to write these articles myself with no reliance on AI systems. Partially that’s because I want to produce something of value, not merely something that’s the amalgamated average of human perception. Partially, I don’t use AI because I try to value the time of my readers. Anyone can mass-produce slop, and I prefer to actually investigate and study these topics. With that in mind, I’d like to politely request that those who find my work interesting consider a paid subscription.

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I’ll be bumping the subscription cost soon from 6$ to 8$ (keeping up with the cost of a nice cup of coffee) per month here in October. Those who get an annual subscription now (or a lifetime sub) will be getting in on the ground floor. It’s also a great way to get my attention when it comes to events like the Nationalist Media Conference¹.

Change is in the Air

With the creation of datacenters, artificial constructs, and global internet, being away no longer comes with the same psychological independence that it once did. Many are so hopelessly reliant on the noosphere that they can scarcely function without direct contact to it in one form or another. Particularly zoomers3. Thus, the idea of “space” becomes as much cognitive as it is physical. Without the cognitive disconnection, the physical disconnection means nothing, and with Starlink now providing access literally anywhere, the wild is often perceived as just as observed and restricted as anywhere else.

The thesis of this argument is that luxury will no longer mean space away from other people (though there will always be a demand for that) but that the near-future will see a sort of throwback philosophy regarding luxury. The capacity to travel.

This article was instigated by recent news updates regarding the airline industry. Namely, that many airline companies are ripping out economy class seating to make space for luxury seats and suites. Simply put, the poor can no longer afford to travel, and many among the former middle-classes cannot either.

Travel is increasingly becoming an economy restricted to the wealthy, international travel even more so. This is something that should be considered when one considers a backup country4.

We see the influencers who once peddled their lifestyles in Dubai and Mexico quietly rolling back home. Part of that is the cost of frivolous travel, and part of that is the result of global instability. I purchased international plane tickets immediately before and after the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, and the difference in price expressed more than a news article on the oil crisis ever could.

It is unlikely I’ll be traveling internationally again for the foreseeable future.

More, it’s unlikely many people will be traveling much for the foreseeable future at all. Business moguls, billionaires, and those who absolutely must show up in person, sure. But the average vacationer is not likely to lightly book a flight from Las Vegas to Tokyo. As the costs associated with travel increase, the heartland of the United States and the isolated villas to which the wealthy once flocked will see their own membership slowly contract.

One of the reasons why the wealthy prefer owning vacation homes in those places is due to the fact that other wealthy people live there. As that network begins to slowly contract, so too will the value of possessing property in those locations.

The price spikes are likely to be sticky. Those with dreams of the cost of gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel coming back down are (I think) delusionally hopeful. If the inflation of the last few years since the pandemic has demonstrated anything, it’s that enshitification can affect all industries, and once it has, it doesn’t tend to go away. Regardless of how the conflict in Iran goes, the new higher prices are functionally baked into the global economy. That will be its own can of worms for governments to untangle5.

At least there’ll be fewer girls traveling to Brazil to get their body-count reset via the best grift I’ve ever heard of. Soon the trip there will cost more than the $13,000 “treatment.” Seems like a lot of trouble when an AI-partner can just validate all your delusions for you at home.

The Effects of the New Economy

The change will take place slowly. People will move between jobs less; moving packages for potential employees will grow more expensive until hiring locally is preferred. This will be a massive boon for Generation Alpha, as the travel economy may reach that point sometime in the next 15 or 20 years. Maybe White Men will finally be employed again when importing infinite-browns becomes too expensive to be worth it, or when traveling back home so Rajeesh can demand a bride becomes unaffordable6.

In some areas, this will result in relocalization of some production, a boon for the local population, and reduced housing costs. In other areas, this will cause catastrophic economic implosion as areas that rely on imports (be they Haitian migrants spitting out tax dollars, food and water, or boomers blowing their inheritance on a new truck with a reverse mortgage) begin to fall apart. In large urban areas, this could cause a revitalization as once again there become benefits to living closer to the urban center if gasoline becomes expensive enough to make driving from distant suburbs unfeasible.

None of this will affect the super-wealthy as they will still use their private jets and their helicopters to get everywhere. But it will affect their underlings paid a measly 200 thousand dollars a year. Where those underlings choose to live, and whom they can recruit, will place limits on where company headquarters are placed.

A relocalization will also result in individuals building stronger and more independent communities. That is not to say that travel won’t happen, but that it will be a significant line-item in the average person’s budget. A man living in Laramie, Wyoming might not want to drive over to Salt Lake City because it’ll cost more than half his paycheck. Even a well-paid tradesman will see that trip as beyond his budget.

If we’re lucky, and the West is carried through these economic tides intelligently, many countries (especially the USA) could see a redevelopment of the national rail system. Not ultra-high-speed-futuristic-rail, but merely regular rail as an alternative to the car and airplane.

I posted an article around 18 months ago, I think? that suggested as much. That it wouldn’t be land, but travel that will be the unattainable luxury of the 21st century. That transition is going to be expensive.

Independent localities may offer major improvements in quality of life, even if access to global markets becomes restricted. A little bit of physical friction for goods and services could well revitalize local economies, especially if tech-oligarchies haven’t found a way to charge a service fee for every gasket fix and oil change. Even then, enforcement will be difficult and actively resisted at the local level rather than national.

It’s all well and good to try and put a local mechanic out of business until the judge of your case is a guy who knows and relies on that mechanic. Which itself will be a byproduct of more self-sufficient localities with deeper multi-generational ties.

Additionally, the travel friction will begin restricting the globalized network effects of large capital in the mass purchase of homes, and the implementation of national zoning laws. Places that already have a history of anti-authoritarianism will be able to properly house their own citizens for the first time in a while.

Towns and cities that have an economic engine (agriculture, mining, timber, factory production) will be well positioned to see a renaissance as the import-export fees will be bumped onto their own exports. Towns and cities that rely on tourism, welfare checks, or boomer social security to maintain their municipalities are likely to disintegrate when shipping expenses rise far enough. Keep that in mind and select your location and lifestyle accordingly in the next year or two.

I anticipate that (depending on the global petroleum markets) these shifts will begin to properly rock the boat sometime around 2030. Anticipate a lot of angry people ready to piss and moan about shipping costs during the 2028 election cycle.

I see this shift as stepping down a rung or two on the complexity ladder. As Joseph Tainter said in his book The Collapse of Complex Societies7. That is, highly complex societies are more efficient, but cost more in terms of overhead than simpler societies. When Rome fell, the average citizen on the periphery saw their quality of life notably increase as the taxation, overreach, and bureaucracy costs fell away due to distance and isolation. In the United States, this could be thought of as a return to simpler lifestyles exemplified on more of a diesel-punk 1930s vibe than a 1990s cyberpunk one.

As travel becomes more expensive, so too might the strong-arm enforcement. Not in totality, of course; surveillance is still cheap and global. The enforcement apparatus itself (the actual men with guns) will also be the last thing to experience a budget contraction.

With that said, it’s a lot easier to go after “some guy” for breaking an obscure national law regarding wetlands because he dug a drainage ditch when that guy has 3 generations of roots in town and friends across the local constabulary. People don’t appreciate being governed by foreigners. As travel becomes more difficult, social circles may localize similar to the ways they did prior to the 2nd world war, but with AI and instant digital communications.

In the end, we could see a future that’s a bit more solarpunk and dieselpunk than it is zuckerborg. That’s what I hope anyway8.

Of course, this may just be my stubborn unwillingness to give up the potential upside on a long downhill curve. I think my next article may be a review of Gurren Lagann to make a point on that subject. What do you guys think?

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