…of this country…from Yahoo News, Liz Goodwin reporting:
Pay Pal founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel has given $1.25 million to an initiative to create floating libertarian countries in international waters, according to a profile of the billionaire in Details magazine.
Thiel has been a big backer of the Seasteading Institute, which seeks to build sovereign nations on oil rig-like platforms to occupy waters beyond the reach of law-of-the-sea treaties. The idea is for these countries to start from scratch–free from the laws, regulations, and moral codes of any existing place. Details says the experiment would be “a kind of floating petri dish for implementing policies that libertarians, stymied by indifference at the voting booths, have been unable to advance: no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons.”
Hail Freedonia!
Rufus T. Firefly: [singing]
If any form of pleasure is exhibited,
Report to me and it will be prohibited!
I’ll put my foot down, so shall it be…
This is the land of the free!
The last man nearly ruined this place
He didn’t know what to do with it.
If you think this country’s bad off now,
Just wait till I get through with it!
The country’s taxes must be fixed,
And I know what to do with it.
If you think you’re paying too much now,
Just wait till I get through with it!
Mrs. Teasdale: Oh, your Excellency!
Rufus T. Firefly: You’re not so bad yourself.
