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analysis
America’s elite are turning their homes into high-tech fortresses.
February 14, 2026, 5:40 p.mFebruary 14, 2026, 5:40 p.m
Unknown people have allegedly kidnapped the mother of the well-known and popular American TV presenter Savannah Guthrie. This crime doesn’t just keep the common people in suspense. Even the super-rich are wondering how this kidnapping was even possible, because the woman lived in a well-secured villa in the state of Arizona.
Fear of burglary and kidnapping has spread like wild leaflets among the American elite. Simply living in a gated community, a settlement guarded by its own security personnel, is no longer enough. Your own house is increasingly becoming a high-tech bunker. Millions of dollars are spent on bulletproof and burglar-proof glass alone.
Savannah Guthrie (right) and her kidnapped mother.Image: keystone
There are also surveillance cameras that capture everything, absolutely everything. “When a resident or visitor drives into the garage, not only is the license plate checked, but facial recognition is also used to check the identity of the occupants and whether they are authorized to enter the building,” notes the Wall Street Journal. “This in turn sets a security system in motion that only allows the person concerned access to approved rooms. At the same time, this system monitors all movements in the house in order to detect anything unusual.”
To ensure that uninvited guests do not even get into the house, the surrounding area is already secured. Like medieval castles, the luxury villas have mini moats. At the same time, they are guarded by armed private police officers, who in turn are supported by specially trained dogs. “Security measures that were once reserved for presidents and members of a royal family are now part of the normal facilities of a luxury home,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Oligarchs like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk go one step further. They have had their own fortresses built on private islands, in New Zealand or South Africa, to which they can retreat should the situation in the USA require it.
The fear of the super-rich has two reasons: In the age of the Internet, they are no longer anonymous. Danny Hertzberg, a well-known real estate agent, explains: “Before social media existed, with a few exceptions, hardly anyone knew the names of CEOs or what they looked like. Nowadays they are being tracked on the internet.” Above all, private jet tracking, the tracking of the flight movements of private jets, is causing the super-rich to sweat in fear.
Parked private jets in the state of Arizona.Image: keystone
Growing inequality provides breeding ground for the elite’s need for security. In the USA, a so-called K-economy, a situation in which the income gap between rich and poor is drifting further and further apart, has become a reality. Social tensions are the logical consequence of this.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to exacerbate these tensions in the near future. While the upper class benefits above average from AI – be it with highly specialized jobs or profits on the financial markets – the common middle class has to fear for their existence. As the Atlantic reports, around 70 percent of Americans are convinced that AI will lead to massive job losses.
This fear is justified. AI is becoming a job killer of the first order. Hardly any industry is spared. Milking robots and AI-controlled harvesting machines are replacing agricultural workers, and robots are frying hamburgers and fries in fast food restaurants. Office work is being replaced by software, and AI is now able to program itself, making software engineers superfluous.
Wants to cut 500,000 jobs: Jeff BezosImage: keystone
Capitalism’s inherent quality of ever-increasing efficiency leads to higher productivity. But the fruits of this fall almost exclusively into the laps of those who already have a lot. This development will continue to intensify. Amazon, for example, expects to save around half a million workers by 2033. Meanwhile, Ford CEO Jim Farley predicts that soon half of office workers will no longer be needed.
The latest data from the American labor market seems to refute the pessimistic predictions, but only at first glance. Although 130,000 new jobs were created in January – significantly more than expected – this positive development is primarily due to two sectors, healthcare and training. In most other sectors, job development was negative. In addition, illegal immigrants are disproportionately represented in the healthcare system.
From this point of view, converting luxury villas into mini high-tech castles is a fatal development. The super-rich isolate themselves like the nobles once did in the Middle Ages – and fear a rebellion by the impoverished farmers.