I live in a gated community (eeek) -- but a very middle-class one. Long story.
Gated communities -- with very few exceptions are not impregnable, nor are they particularly defensible. They're not like armed compounds because they try to make the experience as pleasant as possible for the residents. So it's not quite like the Green Zone in Baghdad, and even that has it's problems.
We are surrounded by lots of gated communities here -- including the one where the Obamas were reportedly looking at buying a home. So I have some knowledge of them. Some of them are quite posh. There are only a few that could be easily defended against a horde, and even that would take quite a few defenders to accomplish.
In fact, being in a gated community makes you more vulnerable because you have a whole bunch of One Percenters enclosed in the same place. So, it would be a lot like storming the Bastille. Plus, most of them are not self-sufficient. They need food, etc. You could interrupt their food supply very easily. Then, what do they do? And if they had on-site defenders, they would need to feed them too.
If I were a One Percenter, I wouldn't rely on a gated community to protect me. At the first sign of trouble, I would fire up the private jet and head off to Dubai or Qatar.
= new reply since forum marked as read
