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Elheru Aran wrote: ↑2019-05-03 12:33pm Re Antarctica: I'm reasonably certain there are international treaties that prohibit anybody from settling there anyway. So anybody trying to set up house on the Antarctic coast would find ships from various countries in their front yard rather quickly with eviction notices, I suspect, if not simply cut off from supplies and allowed to freeze.

Well, the Antarctic villa probably could be legalized by making it also a research station at least superficially. Scientific research is perfectly fine according to Antarctic treaties. Have a few Phd students work there and you have a research station.

Zaune wrote: ↑2019-05-03 12:06pm

Broomstick wrote: ↑2019-05-02 06:26pmThe mega-rich can just buy an actual island. The don't need to build a house on stilts just offshore.

They're still subject to the jurisdiction of whatever country claimed the island in question, which means they can't keep slaves or execute trespassers. Some of the more hardcore "seasteaders" consider that a deal-breaker.

What happens when the governments of the civilised world declare that international law still applies even if you're in terra nullius (or would it be aqua nullius?) and someone sends in a couple of warships to shut their really-social-darwinisst-but-we're-calling-it-Libertarian paradise down with extreme prejudice is something they tend to be rather vague about.

Kinda practical reason for mega rich to make your own nation could be tax evasion scheme, If you are head of your nation then you or your company pays taxes to yourself.

Zixinus wrote: ↑2019-05-03 01:28pm The thing I don't understand with "living in a nation of my own making" is this: say you managed the impossible and have your own patch of extremely remote piece of land that no nation is going to bother contesting you for. Now what? Even if you are well-prepared and have equipment to, say, make your own water and able to grow/fish for food, you're still utterly dependent on a big nation for medicine, equipment, repairs, fuel, refined materials like steel or paper or clothing... either you are living a primitivist life or just gave yourself the biggest commute in the world.

That, or trying to run a pirate base.

So what? Was this not the point? Also, “commute”? If you are skilled in farming, produce your own food and power, why do you need to travel?

Dependency is a thing. Monaco is a massive tax haven for the ultra rich with zero property taxes, though, despite all the dependency on the French.

One fundamental problem in starting an entirely new state from scratch is that the state exists to centralize violence in the territory under its jurisdiction. If you want to start a new state from scratch, the protections against violence which exist in stable states cease to exist, and you are subject not just to violence from other people in your new state, but also to violence from existing states whose claims you might infringe upon, as the people in the OP learned.

(Of course I am speaking very abstractly -- there is always to some extent extrajudicial violence within the jurisdiction of a state, from domestic abuse to gang warfare to insurrection and civil war.)

Practically the only way to become a true stateless anarchist in our day is to have a big permanently inhabited sailboat and never stay anywhere too long, as to not become a resident.

“Seasteaders” are inventing a wheel.

Or rather, a Raft.