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PayPal Island

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d'Anconia

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So as you might have heard Peter Thiel has invested in a free market island.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/international/paypal-founder-peter-thiel-funds-bioshock-esque-project-to-construct-floating-sovereign-nations/

My only concern is that it will not be able to defend itself since other countries will probably have much larger armies.

Now ideally... alot of the rich would move to that island that could potentially grow larger (as in more square miles) and leave the hippies, socialist, communists, middle-of-the-roaders to rot. Conversely if the do something wrong these same people will proclaim that free markets failed.

What do you think?

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My only concern is that it will not be able to defend itself since other countries will probably have much larger armies.

In these hypothetical scenarios, I don't understand why you think any country with a much larger army would even care, especially when we're speaking of a floating city. What country in existence would do that? The US has in the past, but I'm not sure what a pseudo-country like this would have of value, ideologically speaking. Even current dictatorships aren't going on land acquisition binges. If you're away from the Middle East, there shouldn't be much of a threat of invasion by a very large army.

Edited by Eiuol
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It's much more concerning to me that this is being founded on Libertarian principals and that system's lack of a proper central government will lead to anarchy with the strong ruling the weak, and that failure will be laid at the feet of Laissez Faire/capitalism.

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In these hypothetical scenarios, I don't understand why you think any country with a much larger army would even care, especially when we're speaking of a floating city. What country in existence would do that? The US has in the past, but I'm not sure what a pseudo-country like this would have of value, ideologically speaking. Even current dictatorships aren't going on land acquisition binges. If you're away from the Middle East, there shouldn't be much of a threat of invasion by a very large army.

Yes as I think about it you're absolutely right! So just forget I said anything. :D

It's much more concerning to me that this is being founded on Libertarian principals and that system's lack of a proper central government will lead to anarchy with the strong ruling the weak, and that failure will be laid at the feet of Laissez Faire/capitalism.

Well I think that depends on who's going to be on the island.

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In these hypothetical scenarios, I don't understand why you think any country with a much larger army would even care, especially when we're speaking of a floating city.

I think it would be viewed as little more than a 'tax haven' by our government, and they would want to annex it under the guise of closing a tax loophole.

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I don't think they could do that if the island was built in international waters.

For what it is worth UNCLOS prohibits any such construct in international waters.

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Wait, never mind about that. The fact that he referred to ''their barge'' seems to imply that the different governments would rule over different geographical regions, i.e. different islands.

Yes, they are Libertarians. And yes, they plan on having all these "barges" joined together.

Competing Governments... The fun game every power hungry madman can play...

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Yes, they are Libertarians. And yes, they plan on having all these "barges" joined together.

Competing Governments... The fun game every power hungry madman can play...

But it's not as if there will be different governments governing in the same geographical area (which, as we all know, could only cause a disaster), but different areas. It seems the governments would only be ''competing'' in the sense that I could move to whichever barge has the government I prefer. The same was the US and UK (and every other country) are ''competing governments'' in the sense that I can just move to whichever country I prefer.

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