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A comment on 20,000 Nations Above the Sea: Is floating the last, best hope for liberty?.

Re:20,000 Nations Above the Sea: Is floating the last, best ... by russell on Thursday July 09, 2009 @12:36PM (#696195)
I saw the movie Waterworld and I dont think I want to live that way. I've become quite fond of trees, mountains, open spaces, and long hikes without a lot of people around.

Anarchy sounds pretty silly to me. Friedman already says they will need police to make sure they aren't harboring terrorists. Sounds like laws and government to me. Building codes? I would think you would need those on a floating community. Maybe a fire department too. Probably like a community maintenance fee. Sounds like a tax to me. What do do with those citizens who cant care for them selves, the sick, the mentally ill, the young, the unskilled? Row them to the mainland ald let some government care for them?

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Re:20,000 Nations Above the Sea: Is floating the last, best ... by ModelCitizen on Thursday July 09, 2009 @02:19PM (#696393)
I don't believe that Friedman is pushing anarchy explicitly, at least not with his seasteading project. Instead, I see it as applying a startup model to governments, where people are free to form a government any way they please. It allows people to choose which government they prefer.

Theoretically, I like it. But it's a logistical nightmare.

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Re:20,000 Nations Above the Sea: Is floating the last, best ... by gasull on Thursday July 09, 2009 @01:12PM (#696275)
Yes, there would be government and taxes, but most probably it wouldn't be an oversized government in the beginning. Rich countries, as they evolve, increase the volume of their government until their bureaucracy fills every niche of the economy and society.

How Rich Countries Die

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2009/03/16/how-rich-count...

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Re:20,000 Nations Above the Sea: Is floating the last, best ... by r7000 on Thursday July 09, 2009 @01:16PM (#696280)
Try Greg Egan's Distress for an interesting take on an artificial island without a government in the Pacific called "Stateless". (Plus the Theory-of-Everything, future media, genderless humans and autistic-spectrum rights).
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