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."
My immediate, gut reaction: What an innovative and terrific way to escape the shackles of the modern monopoly states of the world. My considered reaction, however: I'm sure the modern monopoly states of the world will find a way to stop it.
ReplyDeleteThey would certainly try unless we "volunteered" to pay them taxes.......
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