Silicon Valley billionaire funding creation of artificial libertarian islands

[kpete]

Source: Yahoo News

Silicon Valley billionaire funding creation of artificial libertarian islands
By Liz Goodwin | The Lookout – 3 hrs ago

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/IBqFcdQUvya6SsLIP_f69A--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTMxMA--/

Pay Pal founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel has given $1.25 million to an initiative to create floating libertarian countries in international waters, according to a profile of the billionaire in Details magazine.

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."

"There are quite a lot of people who think it's not possible," Thiel said at a Seasteading Institute Conference in 2009, according to Details. (His first donation was in 2008, for $500,000.) "That's a good thing. We don't need to really worry about those people very much, because since they don't think it's possible they won't take us very seriously. And they will not actually try to stop us until it's too late."

The Seasteading Institute's Patri Friedman says the group plans to launch an office park off the San Francisco coast next year, with the first full-time settlements following seven years later.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/silicon-valley-billionaire-funding-creation-artificial-libertarian-islands-140840896.html

[Swede]

1. And when a tornado hits them,they can go fuck themselves.

:shrug:

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

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[FarLeftFist]

29. And when they get attacked by a foreign country they have no military

[izquierdista]

33. Two ideal locations

Off the coast of Somalia or the South China Sea. Let them figure out how to negotiate a libertarian agreement with pirates.

[Ghost Dog]

44. Clearly, the inhabitants will be or become pirates themselves. n/t

[bloomington-lib]

41. That's probably their reason for building it 30 miles off San Fran

Benefit from US protection without paying taxes.

[muriel_volestrangler]

53. 200 miles off

according to the 'Details' article - which would make sense, since that's the international limit. Who knows if anyone would actually think them worth attacking - I expect it will become just a location for hosting internet sites that aren't welcome elsewhere (extreme porn, extreme RW hate sites, and maybe sites like Wikileaks if they can't find a secure home in a proper country). I expect a few very rich people will use it as a mailing address to try to get out of paying taxes in other countries where they will really spend nearly all their time - because who wants to spend their time on a dirt-cheap hunk of metal in the middle of the ocean? It'll be home to a few technicians to keep the servers running.

[personman]

46. I'd imagine they'd have unaccountable Blackwater-style private forces. nt

[DCKit]

81. Yeah, but they'd have to house those forces, as well as all the support staff.

It'd end up being like a giant cruise ship with twice the staffing - at least half the number of staff to residents. Will that staff be allowed to enjoy the same leisure opportunities as their masters? Or will they be expected to work for 16 hours a day, and sleep for the remaining time, in their quarters, and out of sight (as they do on cruise ships)?

Further, all the food will have to be imported and desalinated water just isn't going to cut it.

If they don't go with solar or use the differential heat of the ocean at various depths to generate a LOT of electricity, all their energy will also need to be imported.

I believe science fiction writers adequately addressed most of the possible pitfalls.

[arcane1]

2. In the middle of the ocean with "looser building codes"

Brilliant!

Who in their right mind would voluntarily move to a place with no minimum wage? I am, of course, assuming it's voluntary.

[aSpeckofDust]

3. Have they never played bioshock?!

Those big daddies are going to wreck the place ! XD

[0rganism]

8. big daddies for the elites, radscorpions for the rest of us...

life needs to stop imitating art RSN or we're all going to be in even deeper shit.

[No Elephants]

4. So glad I closed my Paypal account over the wikileaks thing.

[primavera]

13. Damn, and here I was hoping PayPal was one of the better choices

Surely, I reasoned, they had to be better than giving one's money to BofA, which seems to be the only other option left to us. I swear, finding a financial institution one can guiltlessly support is getting to be as hard as finding an eco-friendly place to buy gas. Apparently, we're just going to have to go back to stuffing our money under the mattress. Oh well, good thing none of us have much money to worry about.

[krabigirl]

76. I think theil left long before the wikileaks flap.

[Cirque du So-What]

5. Give 'em three weeks

They'll go all Lord of the Flies on each other. In another week, one bloated survivor will be picking his teeth with the bones of a less-fortunate Rand-worshippin' greedhead.

[lolly]

24. Those were my thoughts exactly.

I also have to laugh at the secrecy involved--they have to get out there before people can find out and stop them.

Who the hell wants to stop them? I'll help them pack their bags and drive them to the airport. Or port. Or wherever they're leaving from.

[Cirque du So-What]

50. Paranoid much?

I guess so. That probably fuels most of their desire to separate themselves from mean ol' society with their rules & such.

[0rganism]

6. For some reason, this is reminding me of something... could it be...

[FarLeftFist]

31. I was thinking more like Alcatraz

Lets ship them all over there.

[Occulus]

34. Exactly.

That whole damned game was about almost this exact idea going as predictably badly as it really would.

[Kurska]

7. It'll last about a month before they all survival of the fittest each other. n/t

[Richardo]

9. This is the best news ever.

"Looser building codes" on a floating sea-going platform. Genius!!




Go! Go!

[grahamhgreen]

10. I take it then, that there will be no penalty for looting one of these, and blowing it up afterwards

[sudopod]

11. "And they will not actually try to stop us until it's too late."

Was he holding his pinky to the corner of his mouth when he said this?

[shanti]

12. wouldn't a tsunami take that out?

:eyes:

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[shireen]

58. no, but rogue waves will! nt

[shanti]

62. true!

just saw something on teevee about rogue waves - scary stuff!

[Incitatus]

68. no building codes on a floating pile of crap + big storm =

:hi: :nopity:

[saras]

14. All it would take is a hint to China that we won't defend them...

[denverbill]

15. I see how this is going to work.

Libertarian billionaires set up shop 50 miles off the coast, ship boatloads of Mexican and Chinese workers there since it would be perfectly legal, then set them up in sweatshops paying them 50 cents an hour. They would have no place to shop except the company store, no way to leave without paying for transportation from the company's boat or helicopter. They'd live in company owned housing.

And of course, the billionaires would ply the US Congress with money and pass a 'free trade' deal with Libertopia and everyone, except the Libertopian workers and American workers (meaning only the billionaires) would live happily ever after.

[zeemike]

30. You know you might be right.

This island is not for them to live on....it is for their sweat shop operaitons....close to markets and no regulations at all
That may be the reason he mentioned building codes....so it would be cheep to house the slaves.
And maybe get a prison contract to make it a prison type factory.
And none of them need to actually live there.

[Hydra]

37. Like the Marianas Islands

Good call! They'll still live here and get their bailouts, while they do business in their little offshore prisons.

Evil.

[denverbill]

38. Oh, but they aren't prisons. The workers come of their own free will.

And they can leave anytime they can afford a ticket out, which would be never.

Seriously this is about the only thing I could see working on these islands. You'd have to pay me 5 or 10 times what I make here to live on a floating city 50 miles from the US. 'Normal' US citizens won't be flocking to work there. The only people who might flock there are desperate people.

[Blue_Tires]

51. that makes more sense than the supposed live-work-play home for billionaires...

[IrishAle]

16. WOOT! everyone pony up!

lets send em all to their own little islands.. Teabaggers, Klu Klux Klowns, Libertarians, fans of Twilight.

[drm604]

17. Who would move there?

If anything, this would end up being luxury condos for the super wealthy and P.O. boxes for corporations trying to avoid taxes.

Who's going to emigrate there for a job at less than minimum wage? If they do have any actual manufacturing businesses their employees will be desperate third world people working for slave wages.

And, as others have said: minimal building codes on an artificial sea platform?

What kind of protections will they have from pirates? With the shoreline to landmass ratio these things would have, a large proportion of the population would have to be their military. How would they pay for this? Taxes?

[Capitalocracy]

20. They're going to learn a lot.

Or die. Whatever.

[Ninjaneer]

39. hahaha well said. n/t

[Retrograde]

63. And shanty towns for the workers

Maybe under the pilings, out of sight of the luxury condos. Since there are no minimum wage laws or other labor protection they might as well bring back slavery for all practical purposes. It won't be anything as productive as manufacturing, though: the underclass will be the ones tidying those nice green spaces and cleaning that pool (which they won't be allowed into unless they pay, because parks are socialism), and keeping the infrastructure going - maybe even bailing out the place on occasion.

Military? Why, Blackwater, or whatever they're calling themselves these days. Of course they'll charge more than usual since they'll be in the middle of nowhere, but, hey, that's the free market at work.

What will they do when the pirates come (their website's FAQ naively thinks that just because they don't have goods on their little island the pirates won't bother, since they'll never think of taking a few of those billionaires prisoners in exchange for ransom from their wealthy relatives)? Or boat people looking for work, or escaping governments they don't like? Or epidemics due to lack of regulations on foods and waste disposal - to say nothing of the do-it-yourself health system?

Utopian communities go way, way back, and their an American institution. Very few of them survive the first generation, though, even if they're not founded by trustafarians who don't have much contact with actual working people.

[Incitatus]

66. No, taxes are bad they will call them fees. nt

[Capitalocracy]

18. "a kind of floating petri dish"

Couldn't have said it better myself.

What this fungus is going to find out is that it's impossible for them to exist without someone to leech off of. We need to get our democracy in order so that when these people go move to their little island in the sun, they lose their influence over politics in the U.S.

If you're going to go Galt, just do me a favor and go all the way.

[Solly Mack]

19. lolololololol

"looser building codes" over all that water....lololololololololololol

[guitar man]

21. Let me guess

If they ever did build one of these things, there would be a rich bunch of assholes who would need a servant class there to take care of them that they would want to treat like slaves. If the slaves revolted and killed all of them and tossed their carcasses overboard, how delicious would that be? :evilgrin:

[alp227]

22. cool, but don't go crying to the UN if a disaster happens n/t

[zeemike]

23. Stop you...hell I will help you along.

I say don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.
And I hope other right wingers join you....sometimes the only way to learn a lesson is to just jump.

[russspeakeasy]

26. Will we be invited ?? Hopefully none of them can swim.

I'm in a bad mood today and it just gets worse.

[struggle4progress]

28. Thiel’s Clarium Hedge Fund to Make Tech Investments After Losses

By Miles Weiss

Peter Thiel, whose Clarium Capital Management LLC lost 90 percent of assets from its peak until the end of last year, plans to invest the global macro hedge fund in what made him a billionaire: private technology ventures ...

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

So he lucked out on Facebook and Paypal, before discovering his real talent: losing money. He wants the money he lost back, so he needs some buzzwords and some suckers. The buzzwords are "private technology" and his example is "floating islands." It's just his latest scheme for conjuring up a few billion dollars more. He's spent $1.25 million to advertise this idea, and he's spouting the libertarian crap that he thinks his sucker-investors will want to hear -- including "Don't you listen to the skeptics!"

[Wait Wut]

32. Okey dokey.

But...when they realize this isn't the Nirvana they had hoped and they start paddling their way back to America, we will treat them just like any other undocumented immigrants.

What will they be using for currency? Simoleans?

"...few restrictions on weapons." FRIGGIN' AWESOME!!! Where can I donate, 'cause this sounds like entertainment!

[KamaAina]

35. It'll be just like Dubai, only cooler

:eyes:

[onethatcares]

36. fewer restrictions on weapons.

that ought to fit right in with the looser building codes. Jeeez, you would think being 990 miles out in the ocean you would want something that was tighter in the way of building codes.

I hope they leave soon, these kind of people give me a pain in the asscheeks.

[Bette Noir]

40. Who the hell do they think is going to do the work?

Who is going to feed their lazy asses?

[Incitatus]

52. Immigrants from third world countries that they can treat like slaves?

:shrug:

[cosmicone]

42. A bonanza for pirates ...

readily accessible billionaires with a stash of money!

[Vidar]

43. They'd make a lovely site for bombing practice.

[annabanana]

45. Now THIS would be "reality TV" to DIE for! Must see TV for sure.

There is not enough popcorn in the world to accompany the delicious train-wreck that would ensue.

[BobbyBoring]

47. As far as I'm concerned

They can all move to the existing island of trash they created that is currently floating in the Pacific.

Why waste money when the perfect place is already there?

And the best part??

It's the size of Texas! maybe Rick Parry can be the Prez!


http://plasticoceans.blogspot.com/2010/06/floating-garbage-island-as-big-as-texas.html

[JI7]

48. i can see them bringing in people from poor places to work as Slaves

[harmonicon]

49. It's worked so well in the past:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand

[Gin]

55. sealand looks like an oil rig....people are worse than anyone!

[sudopod]

57. Even better, it's a retired gun platform. nt

[left on green only]

54. Notice How Placid The Ocean Is Depicted To Be In International Waters?

Is is even more calm than Lake Tahoe. :rofl: I guess this fantasy idea/reality goes to prove that having an IQ that challenges the speed limit is not an impediment to becoming filthy rich through taking advantage of the wealth that has been created by our society. Is it possible after the self decimation of this "ideal libertarian utopia", that the idea of unbridled greed will cease to exist on the face of this planet? Holding my breath until then - not.

[Retrograde]

61. You've heard the saying

"If you're so smart how come you're not rich?" - I think the people who came up with this idea mutated it into "I'm so rich I must be smart!".

I've commented on their FAQ in the other thread on this scheme: it's a hoot!

[Capitalocracy]

71. Yeah, "meritocracy" my arse.

These people would never, ever, ever, ever really "go Galt". That would mean working! That would mean growing their own food and stuff, you know, actual work, the kind of thing they've never done in their lives. They'll only live on their little vacation island on international waters as long as it remains protected by the U.S. government they control.

[shireen]

56. watch out for rogue waves.... nt

[Smilo]

59. As long

as they sign a waiver stating that even if they are under attack and down to their last teabag, they will not call on the US for help.

[eppur_se_muova]

60. Finally, a suitable place to dump artificial libertarians. nt

[ThoughtCriminal]

64. A strong local economy

built on a thriving sex-slave trade, gambling and money laundering.

[hifiguy]

65. May the fleas of a thousand camels.....nt

[ThoughtCriminal]

67. And since they think climate change is a myth

Build it for existing sea levels.

[bluestate10]

69. I hope they put the islands far out at sea. Bin Laden's burial site sounds like

an ideal location.

[SnakeEyes]

70. Atlas shugging sooner than expected

Good riddance.

[brooklynite]

72. "looser building codes" on a floating island?

Yeah, that'll work...

[brooklynite]

73. This isn't a new idea...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_minerva

[Matariki]

74. Oh, that will go well....

I hope like hell they actually do build it - looser building codes and all. The 'petri dish' will be the stark lessons the libertarian residents will get with the first hurricane or tsunami that comes along.

[City of Mills]

75. That's awesome, I totally support this wackadoo idea

I can't wait to see this happen!

[KoKo]

77. Reminds me of the Islands of Dubai...but this is ugly looking like out of a James Bond Movie from

the earlier times.

How crazy can things get with this shit. Although, we have been warned about the wealthy seeking haven from the "Peasants with Pitforks" for some time now. Rather than Mansions in Greenwich with Guards and Moats...we now have Private created Fortress Islands.

:rofl: it's truly ridiculous.

[Firebrand Gary]

78. I don't even know what to say to that.

Really, building codes?

Well, let's hope they have no waves more or less hurricanes.

[RegieRocker]

79. Kool-aid anyone?

[ThoughtCriminal]

80. Don't tell them it's the "B-Ark"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golgafrincham#Golgafrincham