Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal, has donated $1.25 million to a group that is attempting to build an artificial island where they can create an independent libertarian society.
The Seasteading Institute plans to fabricate their own countries that would be unburdened by welfare, minimum wage and restrictions on building construction and firearms.
What's so dumb about this venture is the inherent contradiction between the individualist nature of libertarians and the community-oriented behavior needed to pioneer an island society that's completely cut off from both dry land and existing civilization.
If you want the world to leave you alone you could theoretically march off into Appalachia and live off the wilderness. If you're going to raise a family on a fancy, yet agriculturally barren, oil rig you're definitely going to need some help.
This project is going to take a lot of manual labor and without a minimum wage or a social safety net those workers will be abused. Then you're going to be sitting on top of a multi-billion dollar labor camp. Last I checked, labor camps weren't known for their championship of personal liberties.
In an interview Thiel cryptically said, "There are quite a lot of people who think it's not possible. 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."
'Until it's too late?' That's a somewhat menacing thing to say in reference to a utopia based on freedom. What will they be too late for? Are you builing a Death-Ray?
Good luck to you Thiel and company, I'm glad you were able to use the benefits provided to you by both Germany and the United States so you could sail away and ensure you wouldn't have to give anything back.
Watch out for pirates!
Silicon Valley billionaire funding creation of artificial libertarian islands
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