From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Aug 1996 03:10:16 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Protecting floating datahavens?
In-Reply-To: <199608170000.RAA08637@toad.com>
Message-ID: <v0300780aae3b8f84c7b2@[206.119.69.46]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 8:04 PM -0400 8/16/96, Bill Stewart wrote:
> There's also a Laissez-Faire City project, which proposes to lease a
> 10-mile-square chunk of land to rent from any cooperative third-world
> government for 50 years or so with a deal of local autonomy.
> It's much less threatening to the Old World Order than calling yourself
> a country, and you've got a government which is making money by
> leaving you alone that at least discourages the most likely invaders
> (itself, and the US) without having to provide much national defense.
> Who knows, maybe they'll actually do something, and rent a chunk of
> Costa Rica or Somaliland or whatever.

Along these lines, there was some comment in the latest Forbes billionaire list issue about a guy who's trying to do something like this in the Phillipenes. I don't think he's going the "total local autonomy" route, but he's definitely doing the Jack Kemp "enterprize" zone, no-tax-on-anything trick. 

However, as Black Unicorn has noted here before, the Phillipenes are the only other country besides the USofA where citizens are taxed any income you get, no matter where on earth you actually earn it. (An outcome of the Marcos expulsion, I think). Getting from those kinds of confiscatory laws to no taxes at all will be some mean trick. Given that the Phillipenes, "People Power" or no, could be charitably be called a plutocracy at best, and a cleptocracy at worst, I wish this guy luck. Him being a plutocrat himself may help. 

Not that I have anything against plutocrats, mind you. Want to be one myself, someday. Well, "pluto", anyway. I guess it's the "cracy" part of "plutocracy" that gets my undies in a bunch...

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga

-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
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