I’ve always wondered: How do billionaires ensure their security?
Does this old lady have no security detail at all? Are they as prone as us to street-mugging?
Do people like usual unicorn CEOs, I know some who have street-facing houses or houses without a big fence (they don’t live in gated communities), have armed guys to protect against intruders? Do they walk their dog at night? let their kids walk to school in the morning? Do they have security detail for all this, or are they just like us, crossing their fingers that crime be low? Being CEOs with large interests at stake, they surely receive targeted blackmailing in large quantity, don’t they? Even as billionaires, do they simply take the first Uber from their airport to a downtown hotel? Do they simply assume airport-uber-hotel facilities are naturally safe, even considering how much interest they concentrate on their person?
I think it depends on the country and the viability of any sort of attack on the person as an enterprise likely to produce profit.
In countries known for their lawlessness, perhaps Brazil for example, or Papua New Guinea, HNW people do indeed have security details and live in pretty fortified areas (whole districts, typically, not just houses). A visiting CEO or whoever, depending on how well-known they are and how publicly knowable their visit is likely to be, might well organise such protection when they visit. Countries like this, all countries actually, have companies specialising in exactly that.
But I think in countries where there is a credible claim to rule of law, attacks on the actual person are pretty rare. Kidnapping as a general crime is all but extinct in most of the developed world, and you'd have to kidnap someone to make any actual money - it's not like they have a billion dollars in cash on their person. You'd have to kidnap for ransom (or I suppose crypto keys these days?) which is just extraordinarily risky and unlikely to succeed in the modern, developed world.
As to the "uber from the airport" question, anyone above a certain net worth has at least one assistant who organises their calendar and travel (and their whole lives, actually) and they will have arranged transport to/from airports in advance.
To give an example of this, I live in Hong Kong and I've seen people park their very expensive lamborghini, ferrari and mclaren and just go to a small completely unassuming restaurant. I'm always curious so I google the car make I see and some were valued over a million usd. So at least high net worth individuals (not the extremes) feel safe in this city.
Yes and a murder in Luk yu tea house. This doesn't stop high net worth from feeling rather safe. The extremes like the billionaire tycoons are a different matter and I've seen Richard Li come in a restaurant I was eating with his entire retinue of body guards.
Monaco is incredibly safe - undercover and uniformed police everywhere, ubiquitous video surveillance, few ingress/egress points, thorough filtering of cars coming in and out based on condition and license plate, etc. It’s a small territory and thus easy to monitor.
...and practically speaking, it is really hard to get in and out of Monaco (there are only a few roads in and out and traffic moves slowly) and everywhere is covered by cameras. Anyone who tried a street robbery likely wouldn't make it very far at all.
This isn't a problem in a lot of areas. Believe it or not, some places are fairly safe. If you live in a safer area, why would you bother paying for security, especially if no one realizes that you might be worth getting mugged?
I think it depends on the level of fame. Zuckerberg/Gates/Buffet/Musk all have bodyguards. Pretty sure I could walk past EG the Coinbase or AirBnB founders and not recognise them.
I saw benioff crossing the street in San Fran once. Heh it looked like that painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. My CEO was with me at the time and in awe, I was laughing so hard I had to stop walking.
Does this old lady have no security detail at all? Are they as prone as us to street-mugging?
Do people like usual unicorn CEOs, I know some who have street-facing houses or houses without a big fence (they don’t live in gated communities), have armed guys to protect against intruders? Do they walk their dog at night? let their kids walk to school in the morning? Do they have security detail for all this, or are they just like us, crossing their fingers that crime be low? Being CEOs with large interests at stake, they surely receive targeted blackmailing in large quantity, don’t they? Even as billionaires, do they simply take the first Uber from their airport to a downtown hotel? Do they simply assume airport-uber-hotel facilities are naturally safe, even considering how much interest they concentrate on their person?