Silicon Valley billionaire funding creation of artificial libertarian islands

[Ideologue]

I really, really want to see one of these happen, just to see how rapidly they devolve into anarchy and then totalitarianism.

Or, as implied above, disintegrate and fall into the ocean.

I actually Wiki'd micronations, and it turns out that this isn't the first or even the second libertarian island experiment.  Shockingly, none of those experiments have worked out.  Unfortunately, none of those experiments ended particularly violently either. 

Well, there's Sealand--it's like, what, six people?

[Ideologue]

Also,

Operation Atlantis, an early 1970s New York–based libertarian group that built a concrete-hulled ship called Freedom, which they sailed to the Caribbean, intending to anchor it permanently there as their "territory". The ship sank in a hurricane and the project foundered with it.

Republic of Minerva, another libertarian project that succeeded in building a small man-made island on the Minerva Reefs south of Fiji in 1972 before being ejected by troops from Tonga, who later formally annexed it.

Principality of Freedonia, a libertarian project that tried to lease territory from the Sultan of Awdal in Somaliland in 2001. Resulting public dissatisfaction led to rioting, and the reported death of a Somali.

Oceania (also known as "The Atlantis Project", but unrelated to the 1970s project listed above), another libertarian artificial island project that raised US $400,000 before going bankrupt in 1994

[Valmy]

We had this idea with America and religious nuts. They came back.

They did?

[Legbiter]

I actually Wiki'd micronations, and it turns out that this isn't the first or even the second libertarian island experiment.  Shockingly, none of those experiments have worked out.

Remember, comrades, true libertarianism has never been tried! 

[Barrister]

I really, really want to see one of these happen, just to see how rapidly they devolve into anarchy and then totalitarianism.

Or, as implied above, disintegrate and fall into the ocean.

I actually Wiki'd micronations, and it turns out that this isn't the first or even the second libertarian island experiment.  Shockingly, none of those experiments have worked out.  Unfortunately, none of those experiments ended particularly violently either. 

Well, there's Sealand--it's like, what, six people?

Does anybody actually live on Sealand?

[Tamas]

Someone is ought to make a statistics about in what division do Languish threads become Slargofied, or grumblerified. I see no third option.

[Razgovory]

I like that approach.  We get to ship the libertarians off to some hellhole far away from us, and we'll get them to actually do it voluntarily all on their own. 

We had this idea with America and religious nuts. They came back.

We?  I don't recall Poles exiling people to the New World.

[Slargos]

Someone is ought to make a statistics about in what division do Languish threads become Slargofied, or grumblerified. I see no third option.

I apologize for having such a forceful personality. 

[MadImmortalMan]

He's good at losing money too.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-15/thiel-s-clarium-hedge-fund-to-make-tech-investments-after-losses.html

[Martinus]

This quote caught my eye...

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."

Yeah, those loose building codes look especially appropriate for an oil rig-like platform far, far out at sea. 

I guess this guy was inspired by this goblin platform/ship in Thousand Needles.

[Martinus]

We had this idea with America and religious nuts. They came back.

They did?

They landed in Normandy.

[Martinus]

Someone is ought to make a statistics about in what division do Languish threads become Slargofied, or grumblerified. I see no third option.

I feel overlooked. A thread devolving into ragequit drama and/or gayness is my signature act. 

[The Minsky Moment]

I don't think this will work the way the billionaire thinks it will.

Let's say a bunch of Americans go to live on the oil platform.  They will still be US citizens - they will still be subject to significant US criminal and civil jurisdiction, including the obligation to file and pay US taxes.  Moreover, to the extent they do anything inimical to the property rights of others while on present in the high seas outside of any sovereign jurisdiction, they could be subject to the international law of piracy.

[Martinus]

I don't think this will work the way the billionaire thinks it will.

Let's say a bunch of Americans go to live on the oil platform.  They will still be US citizens - they will still be subject to significant US criminal and civil jurisdiction, including the obligation to file and pay US taxes.  Moreover, to the extent they do anything inimical to the property rights of others while on present in the high seas outside of any sovereign jurisdiction, they could be subject to the international law of piracy.

I largely agree but can't they renounce their US citizenship?

[DGuller]

I don't think this will work the way the billionaire thinks it will.

Let's say a bunch of Americans go to live on the oil platform.  They will still be US citizens - they will still be subject to significant US criminal and civil jurisdiction, including the obligation to file and pay US taxes.  Moreover, to the extent they do anything inimical to the property rights of others while on present in the high seas outside of any sovereign jurisdiction, they could be subject to the international law of piracy.

Government tyranny cuts down another one of the most productive members of society.