ChrisGraley (99.70)

Does anyone want to be a seasteader? Better look at this Libertarians!

September 07, 2009 – Comments (1) | RELATED TICKERS: I , BE , FREE

I'm only toying with this idea, because I believe that it opens up the possibility of personal sovereignty to  many more people. I had initally written off the idea after checking many sea-steading websites full of people with wild ideas hoping that other people would throw money at them.

I do believe it can and will be done however and once it does happen, it will forever change the way that governments deal with citizens. The first thing that I would do is form a company with the plan of building a new nation. The new nation would basically consist of the world's biggest dock attached to a sea-mount. The dock's design would resemble a spud barge, if anybody knows what that is. Basically the dock would float on poles drilled into the sea-mount. The dock would be self-sufficient on it's own and would consist of de-salinization, energy production, ariable land, ect... It would also house a military and other essential crew. The dock would be made from foam covered by ferrous concrete. This would be built in a low-wage nation and towed to it's location. The military would be provided a couple of ships and a few submarines. The naval vehicles would be by far the biggest expense.

Preferred stock in the company would only be owned by citizens and it would be the only stock with voting rights. To become a citizen, you would have to pay a non-refundable $5,000 administrative fee for each person. That fee would be used to fund a background check, physical, boating class and self-sufficiency class. Each applicant between the ages of 16- 65 would have to pass all of the above to become a citizen. Those that are not within that age group may fail anything but the background check and may still qualify, provided that two other people in the family can prove that they can handle care and support. Additional chances will be given to pass anything but the background check at $1000 a piece. Allowances on the background check would only be made in the court system. Once a family has passed this step a $75,000 family citizenship fee would be required and every family member must purchase 1 preferred share of stock at an initial rate of $5,000 a share. At this point they are citizens and nothing else is required. If they additionally want to live in the country, they would have to purchase a special homestead boat that locks to the dock and to other boats at a minimum cost of about $200,000 (still not sure of the actual minimum cost yet, this is just a guess.) The locking system that locks the boats to the dock would be patented. The boats, like the docks would be self sufficient, and be made from ferrous concrete over foam.

We would sell both boats and docks to anybody else wanting to buy them. Thus allowing anyone else to create their own nation if they want to. Other boats would be able to dock at our country, but without  the special docking mechanism, they would be at more risk to the weather. The mechanism provides a greater surface area, and since larger waves have a larger wavelength, it would mitigate the ill effects of the ups and downs at sea. We are only talking about sudden storms and rouge waves here. Given the advanced detection of hurricanes now, it would be smarter to undock your boat and take a little trip for a while.

Notice that I didn't talk much about government so far. I don't plan on there being much of a government. To start, we will only be concerned with maintaining the peace. We will first be a country to make money. The citizens benefit from making money and are able to control the company through their vote. We will eventually be able to provide more things to our country as we get more income and the citizens will be able to vote on whether they want these things. I have a feeling that the things that make even more money and provide a better quality of life will be voted in first. I'd like to try to keep the stock valued at around $5000 if I can to allow people to become citizens easily.  Hopefully the net effect would be that citizen shares would increase over time.

Ohh, I forgot to mention the taxes! The only taxes would be docking fees. If you're not a citizen docking fees would be higher. If you aren't docked, you don't get taxed. The country will make most of our money selling docks and boats and stuff that we can import cheaper than individuals.

If you don't like our country, you can just float on over and lock your boat to the next one that we sold a dock to.

I know this all sounds pie in the sky, as most things in my head initially do, but it is very preliminary and right now I'm only looking for enough people that support it enough to make me want to pursue it further. Until I start to build a dock, the initial cost is just a bunch of studies, which is tolerable.

What does everyone think? I believe that I've provided the cheapest citizenship with the least amount of strings attached, but if you want to be a resident, I'm just slightly under St. Kitts right now.

The beutiful thing is that you can't float away in your house if you're unhapy with St Kitts though.

Let me know how this appeals to you or what your worries are.