Silicon Valley billionaire funding creation of artificial libertarian islands

[redrumloa]

Silicon Valley billionaire funding creation of artificial libertarian islands

Thiel has been a big backer of the Seasteading Institute, which seeks to build sovereign nations on oil rig-like platforms to occupy waters beyond the reach of law-of-the-sea treaties. The idea is for these countries to start from scratch--free from the laws, regulations, and moral codes of any existing place. Details says the experiment would be "a kind of floating petri dish for implementing policies that libertarians, stymied by indifference at the voting booths, have been unable to advance: no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons."

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Silicon Valley billionaire funding creation of artificial libertarian islands

Many people have tried to create countries to escape the laws of other countries, to be able to set up tax havens, banking interests or simply to shield criminal enterprises. You can probably think of a few countries that have come about like that over the last century but those countries generally need the backing of a sympathetic state and an ongoing strategic relationship.

People have thought of the floating island and such ideas before also but you still need the backing of friendly states else you will quickly be boarded or sunk by the first state who feels their toes stepped on and without international recognition there won't even be an outcry.

While the idea is interesting the lessons learnable can also be found by looking back. The continent of North America was underpopulated when Europeans started arriving and many more or less lawless or autonomous communities sprang up out of reach of the law of anyone in particular. The sort of anarchies proposed tend not to last past a few hundred people.

Imagine what loose building codes could do on a floating platform and what no minimum wage would result in when cut off from almost all necessary resources to sustain life. Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, he doesn't need to work for you. Pay a man a quarter of a fish a day and make sure he can never buy his own equipment or associate with "do-gooders" and you have a slave for life.

 

[the_leander]

Or they could save a bundle and simply play bioshock...

 

[faethor]

When the US was founded the equivalent of the 'libertarians' went back to Europe. We then excelled. I think this will be a good experiment.

And I'll break out the popcorn once they start talking Ayn Rand took gov supplied healthcare and start demanding their own.