As the disparity between rich and poor widens across the globe, the threat of civil unrest intensifies, triggering fear and panic in the elite as they meticulously plan their escape to remote countries.

The distant island of New Zealand ranks as one of the top destinations where the super rich are purchasing hideouts, airstrips, farms and other pieces of property they think they’ll need to survive a mass social uprising.

“Nervous financiers from across the globe have begun purchasing landing strips, homes and land in areas such as New Zealand so they can flee should people rise up,” reports Mirror.co.uk.

Among the elite include “super rich hedge fund managers,” who have grown increasingly nervous as indicators of a coming global debt collapse become more evident through a recent stock market crash that sent shock waves through China and the U.S.

Growing civil unrest including the Ferguson riots sparks fears in the super rich

The interdependence between debt, money creation and large central banks has reached an all-time high, signaling an inevitable collapse as the global debt system grows more and more unstable.

Even the most developed nations are on the brink of collapse, including the United States, where the number of people struggling to survive on just $2 a day has more than doubled since 1996 and placed “1.5 million households and 3 million children” in a “desperate economic situation,” reports CBS News.

“While it may be the norm to see families in developing countries such as Bangladesh and Ethiopia struggle to survive on such meager income, the growing ranks of America’s ultrapoor may be shocking, given that the U.S. is considered one of the most developed capitalist countries in the world.”

Also feeling the tension is Canada, as the country announced it fell into a recession during the first half of 2015 mainly due to low oil prices; however, a diminishing middle class, $150 billion in new debt, crumbling infrastructure and tax breaks for the wealthy have also contributed.

The ultra rich are by no means blind to the world’s increasing economic instability, recognizing that they soon may have every reason to flee.

“I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway,” said Robert Johnson, president of the Institute of New Economic Thinking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“People need to know there are possibilities for their children – that they will have the same opportunity as anyone else,” said Johnson.

“There is a wicked feedback loop. Politicians who get more money tend to use it to get more even money.”

Economist: “If they can get off, onto another planet, some of them would”

Stewart Wallis, executive director of the New Economics Foundation agrees, adding, “If they can get off, onto another planet, some of them would.

“I think the rich are worried and they should be worried. I mean inequality, why does it matter?” asked Wallis.

“Most people have heard the Oxfam statistics that now we’ve got 80, the 80 richest people in the world, having more wealth that the bottom three-point-five billion, and very soon we’ll get a situation where that one percent, one percent of the richest people have more wealth than everybody else, the 99.”

Additional sources:

Mirror.co.uk

TheGuardian.com

News.Yahoo.com

CBSNews.com