Did they learn nothing?
By
2short2care,
Posted on: 2011-08-16 13:11 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
I've read about plans for these "floating independent countries" before and the basic idea is most of them supposedly will only let you live there if you're worth like 100 million dollars or more. I suppose it'd be pretty easy to live in a "Libertarian Utopia" if you're already super-wealthy. 
Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀
Ha, free from laws, regulations, and moral codes, no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons doesn't that kind of sound like every third world country that we have now?
Cancel the kitchen scraps for widows and lepers, no more merciful beheadings and call off christmas!
Is Lex Luthor involved in this somehow?
@Mental Maden @Maden Mental
"....you are now tackle free for life."-ShoNuff
Quote:
I guess these islands would be kind of like the upper class "cruise ship" versions of that. |
Originally Posted by 2short2care
Ha, free from laws, regulations, and moral codes, no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons doesn't that kind of sound like every third world country that we have now?
|
Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀
Looser building codes is a huge warning flag. Thats exactly what you want to hear on a man made island in the middle of the ocean.
Work in progress no more. I have decided that I'm going to put my worst spelling errors here. Triage Bacon, Had this baster idea, TL
R"I'm going to beat the Jesus out of Satan!" My Wife while playing Dante's Inferno
First thing that comes to mind is why they closed Alkatraz Prison. Cost too much for food to get there. And that was only a few miles off shore. How about a few hundred miles off coast? Hmm?
Quote:
That's when they start handing out the Soylent Green. |
Originally Posted by Vexen777
First thing that comes to mind is why they closed Alkatraz Prison. Cost too much for food to get there. And that was only a few miles off shore. How about a few hundred miles off coast? Hmm?
|
Cancel the kitchen scraps for widows and lepers, no more merciful beheadings and call off christmas!
Proving yet again that "rich" is not synonymous with "smart."
When they get wiped out from a tsunami/rogue wave/hurricane/pirate invasion, we get to point and laugh.
The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
Quote:
They'll only hand out the Soylent Green when the Soylent Brown supplies run low.
|
Originally Posted by 2short2care
That's when they start handing out the Soylent Green.
|
Goodbye, I guess.
@Lord_Nightblade in Champions/Star Trek Online
nightblade7295@gmail.com if you want to stay in touch
The full version only gets better:
Quote:
Why do arch-Libertarians always wind up sounding like Bond villains the longer they talk?|
Thiel put forth his views on the subject in a 2009 essay for the Cato Institute, in which he flatly declared, "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." He went on: "The great task for libertarians is to find an escape from politics in all its forms," with the critical question being "how to escape not via politics but beyond it. Because there are no truly free places left in our world, I suspect that the mode for escape must involve some sort of new and hitherto untried process that leads us to some undiscovered country." {...} "There are quite a lot of people who think it's not possible," he told a crowd of true believers at the Seasteading Institute Conference in 2009. "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." |
And just to add to the colorful if nerdy details, he's an avid admirer of J. R. R. Tolkien and Howard Hughes.
Quote:
You have successfully made me queasy, now to go yak.
|
Originally Posted by Lord_Nightblade
They'll only hand out the Soylent Green when the Soylent Brown supplies run low.
|
Cancel the kitchen scraps for widows and lepers, no more merciful beheadings and call off christmas!
Quote:
Yeah, I don't get the "before it's too late" thing either. Why would anyone want to stop them?|
Originally Posted by TrueGentleman
Why do arch-Libertarians always wind up sounding like Bond villains the longer they talk?
And just to add to the colorful if nerdy details, he's an avid admirer of J. R. R. Tolkien and Howard Hughes. |
It sounds less LotR and more Atlas Shrugged. I need to find that quote comparing the two.
The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
Quote:
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. "
|
Originally Posted by Ironik
Yeah, I don't get the "before it's too late" thing either. Why would anyone want to stop them?
It sounds less LotR and more Atlas Shrugged. I need to find that quote comparing the two. |
Quote:
So...if you were a pirate, it would be a pretty good place to start your career.|
Originally Posted by Lothic
I've read about plans for these "floating independent countries" before and the basic idea is most of them supposedly will only let you live there if you're worth like 100 million dollars or more. I suppose it'd be pretty easy to live in a "Libertarian Utopia" if you're already super-wealthy.
|
Who's with me?
Arc# 92382 -- "The S.P.I.D.E.R. and the Tyrant" -- Ninjas! Robots! Praetorians! It's totally epic! Play it now!
Arc # 316340 -- "Husk" -- Azuria loses something, a young woman harbors a dark secret, and the fate of the world is in your hands.
Quote:
The looser building codes are for the barge/ghettos where their housekeepers and Starbucks employees would live.
|
Originally Posted by Crim_the_Cold
Looser building codes is a huge warning flag. Thats exactly what you want to hear on a man made island in the middle of the ocean.
|
@Joshua.
Quote:
Exactly what I thought of immediately. Sounds like Somalia today. Or the Rogue Isles: the strong control and exploit the weak through force. Sadly, many people forget how hard it is to set up a government where the minority are not crushed by the majority.
|
Originally Posted by 2short2care
Ha, free from laws, regulations, and moral codes, no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons doesn't that kind of sound like every third world country that we have now?
|
Ideally, the tank will die precisely as everyone else starts fighting, allowing aggro to be spread evenly among the blaster. -seebs, "How to Suck at CoH/CoV" Guide
Let me guess, the currency is BitCoin?
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
Built by the rich with their billions.
Billions of what? Paper currency backed by the socialish democracies they abhor?
Free from international treaties and laws.
Good. Sending the Somalian pirates your coordinates. Good luck!
Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides
HO come on, they're going to need slav... I mean a labor for... I mean a middle class!
Quote:
Another colorful detail from the Details article: Thiel co-founded PayPal with the mission of "enabling monetary sovereignty".
|
Originally Posted by DarkGob
Let me guess, the currency is BitCoin?
|
Quote:
Pretty much. At the same time it's worth pointing out that the outcome will likely be very different for a small community in the ocean than it would for your average third world country simply because it's much easier to control access.|
Originally Posted by 2short2care
Ha, free from laws, regulations, and moral codes, no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons doesn't that kind of sound like every third world country that we have now?
|
For example, one of the Libertarian proposals he wants to implement is "No Welfare". I have to say that no welfare is a lot easier to handle when you're in a situation that makes it very easy to simply deport anyone who would need welfare. I imagine that any employees there (as opposed to millionaire residents) who loses their job will simply be placed on the next transport ship back to the United States.
Similarly the lack of a government enforced minimum wage is less of a concern when you do have an artificial scarcity of labor. In an artificial state there are effectively no "residents" simply "owners" and "employees". Since the employees are, effectively, living in somewhat extreme isolation they will have to be paid a higher wage than they would earn for an equivalent job on the mainland in order to convince them to do it (i.e. if I can earn $7 an hour working at Walmart I'm not going to move to an artificial island for $7 an hour).
Quote:
Better yet, Thiel is on the Bilderberg Group's steering committee. He's only a pair of mechanical hands away from being cast as Ayn Rand's reboot of Dr. No.
|
Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Built by the rich with their billions.
Billions of what? Paper currency backed by the socialish democracies they abhor? |
I just picture this guy being told that it was illegal for him to do something, and he responded, "Oh yeah?! Well I'll build my own country! With blackjack! And hookers!"
Goodbye, I guess.
@Lord_Nightblade in Champions/Star Trek Online
nightblade7295@gmail.com if you want to stay in touch
The thing they too often forget about living without laws is that it doesn't just apply to you. It applies to everyone else. Soon as they get mugged or what-have-you, they are screaming for protection and "someone to do something".
Course, if yer rich enough, you can buy your own protection and then it just comes down to who has more men and guns. This country (if it could indeed be called that) would be a fascinating study group on minimal, if any, oversight/regulation/etc amongst the uber-rich. Though one could make the argument that they already live like that, just more spread out.
Epic Facepalming to Commence.