Both Altman and Thiel purchased estates in New Zealand to prepare for some sort of collapse of society in the United States, like an ordinary person might have a small bottled water supply for a natural disaster.
I suppose then there must be some litmus test of when someone has acted in their own best interest, and been to successful at it. I realize that's a super snarky way to put it, but it sounds like what is at the very Crux of this issue.