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Techno-libertarians are flocking to the Caribbean

economist.com

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Re: Techno-libertarians are flocking to the Caribbean

#31

Post by mothballed »

m348e912 wrote: post #4

https://archive.is/gWfRv This article is about a project called "Destiny" ( https://destiny.com ), an economic zone to be created in an undeveloped region of Nevis (of St. Kitts & Nevis) The project goal is to become like Dubai with a 50m dollar investment, which I don't think is an admirable goal btw. St Kitts & Nevis has had a history of being friendly to crypto and there was an initiative to make bitcoin cash lega…

A glance at their website shows 25% of the profit being paid out between the government, residents, scholarship funds, etc.

So you're effectively paying US taxes from the get go, before you even get to the point of anything at all going towards basic services.

Re: Techno-libertarians are flocking to the Caribbean

#32

Post by CGMthrowaway »

These projects obviously have limited success. I found it interesting to learn about a couple that were very successful, though.

1) the Republic of Venice from 7th to 18th centuries, basically a merchant-run state controlled by a tight circle of wealthy traders. Its whole setup revolved around safeguarding trade and property and staying clear of the Catholic church and European kings.

2) the Republic of Ragusa from 14th to 19th centuries, in what’s now Dubrovnik, run by a small group of merchant families. Strong focus on open commerce and neutrality, made early advances in public health and infrastructure and had its own privately funded healthcare and insurance, all paid for by trade profits

Re: Techno-libertarians are flocking to the Caribbean

#33

Post by jasonmp85 »

_3u10 wrote: post #24
WaitWaitWha wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I been to St. Kitts & Nevis. The only thing I can remember is the very stark contrast between the commercialized beaches versus where the locals lived, and the roaming cows everywhere. Nevis (the baseball) was only boat accessible, and St. Kitts (the bat) is mostly hills of national park. Vast majority of things must be flown or shipped in. I am hard pressed to see some "techno libertarians" doing techno without Amaz…

[flagged]

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Re: Techno-libertarians are flocking to the Caribbean

#34

Post by rjbwork »

hatthew wrote: post #29
schlap wrote: post #13

They'll figure out soon enough why people vacation instead of live there

As someone with no plans to live or vacation in the caribbean, I'm curious. Is there a specific notable reason, or is it just a combination of littler things (cost, convenience, politics, weather, etc.)?

I've spend a total of about 2 months in the Carribean. One of those being an entire month straight.

It's the convenience really, and the fact that nobody is in a hurry. Island time is real. You cannot be demanding. You can't really be upset at service. Most people are there to chill out, even if they are doing a job. Life is just slower.

This is good, IMO. But if you are a hedonically adapted/burned out western metropolis dweller, this culture shock could be distressing.

Re: Techno-libertarians are flocking to the Caribbean

#35

Post by mothballed »

ceejayoz wrote: post #26
dabluecaboose wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> There are no bears in the Caribbean… Bears were hardly the only problem. "Grafton got worse. Recycling rates went down. Neighbor complaints went up. The town’s legal costs went up because they were constantly defending themselves from lawsuits from Free Towners. The number of sex offenders living in the town went up. The number of recorded crimes went up. The town had never had a murder in living memory, and it had…

Yeah if you take any system and quickly replace it you'll run into issue. My town is so libertarian it doesn't even have public roads and absolutely zero public services, no police officer either, but we've been doing it that way for decades if not centuries, so we have the system down and there's no stories about bears or the roads not working or whatever.

Re: Techno-libertarians are flocking to the Caribbean

#36

Post by Animats »

What, again? Neither of the "Bitcoin island" schemes ever happened. The seasteading people failed to convince anybody that living on an old anchored cruise ship just for a tax break was worth it. The Sea Pod didn't look survivable in a storm.

Red Rock Island in San Francisco Bay [1] is apparently for sale again. It was supposedly sold in 2025, but that deal may have fallen through. Nobody built anything on it. Five acres of rock with cliffs. It's basically a mountain peak sticking out of water. It would take a lot of money and work to do something with it. At least as much as the Eagle's Nest [2], plus the costs of operating on an island. Which means there are about a dozen people in the Bay Area who could afford it.

[1] https://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/red-rock-island-isan-fr...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kehlsteinhaus

Re: Techno-libertarians are flocking to the Caribbean

#37

Post by mothballed »

Animats wrote: post #36

What, again? Neither of the "Bitcoin island" schemes ever happened. The seasteading people failed to convince anybody that living on an old anchored cruise ship just for a tax break was worth it. The Sea Pod didn't look survivable in a storm. Red Rock Island in San Francisco Bay [1] is apparently for sale again. It was supposedly sold in 2025, but that deal may have fallen through. Nobody built anything on it. Five a…

Libertarians did make an actual island, Republic of Minerva, but the Australian/western and Polynesian governments were so scared shitless of a tiny island of libertarians that they concocted a story about it being "Tongan fishing lands" (despite the fact being way out of Tongan waters and Tonga basically ~never having mentioned it until some other people decided to put an island there). Then they sent the Tongan Navy to take it by force.

http://www.queenoftheisles.com/HTML/Republic%20of%20Minerva....

Re: Techno-libertarians are flocking to the Caribbean

#38

Post by dabluecaboose »

ceejayoz wrote: post #26
dabluecaboose wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> There are no bears in the Caribbean… Bears were hardly the only problem. "Grafton got worse. Recycling rates went down. Neighbor complaints went up. The town’s legal costs went up because they were constantly defending themselves from lawsuits from Free Towners. The number of sex offenders living in the town went up. The number of recorded crimes went up. The town had never had a murder in living memory, and it had…

Great stuff! Apologies for the snark before, there weren't many comments and I was miffed that one of the few was so short. I stepped outside my office into the sun right after posting and felt ridiculous. Go outside, people!

Re: Techno-libertarians are flocking to the Caribbean

#39

Post by p1necone »

Animats wrote: post #36

What, again? Neither of the "Bitcoin island" schemes ever happened. The seasteading people failed to convince anybody that living on an old anchored cruise ship just for a tax break was worth it. The Sea Pod didn't look survivable in a storm. Red Rock Island in San Francisco Bay [1] is apparently for sale again. It was supposedly sold in 2025, but that deal may have fallen through. Nobody built anything on it. Five a…

I'm eternally disappointed that none of these libertarian projects even manage to survive long enough to hit the "oops we just reinvented government and taxes" stage.

Re: Techno-libertarians are flocking to the Caribbean

#40

Post by supertroop »

lurk2 wrote: post #19

In 2014 it was Chile, in 2017 it was Honduras, then Colombia and El Salvador in the early 2020s. In Chile and Colombia they were coasting on tax authorities not pursuing them and relying on the cultural cachet of being thought-leading risk takers who were forward-thinking enough to take on a new frontier (remember this is when they started flying south for ayahuasca ceremonies). In the case of Honduras and El Salvado…

Remember the scene in Blow when Johnny Depp’s character goes to Columbia to make a withdrawal from the millions he’s been sending to their banks and they are like like “huh, we don’t remember you creating an account here. Good day sir. Please leave.”
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