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How The "1%" Will Escape?
It seems only apropos the current exuberance that, having been put on hold due to the economic crisis, an ambitious project to build the world's biggest ship and create "a community that offers unique lifestyle opportunities" is back on track and seeking investors. With calls for wealth taxes increasing and "the 1%" becoming increasingly separate from the rest of the world, what better way that the ironically named "Freedom Ship," which as IBTimes reports, will be a vast floating city that will be more than a mile long and 25 storeys high. It will cost $10bn to build and will constantly circumnavigates the globe; and while US residents may still need to pay taxes, residents of other countries "may realise tax savings by residing in or running businesses in the Freedom Ship Community."
Aimed at creating the world's first mobile community, Freedom Ship will be the largest ship ever built at over a mile long and 25 storeys high.
Freedom Ship: The $10 Billion Floating City for the Super Rich has been redesigned ahead of an expected launch.
Having been put on hold due to the economic crisis, an ambitious project to build the world's biggest ship and create "a community that offers unique lifestyle opportunities" is back on track and seeking investors.
Freedom Ship will be a vast floating city that will be more than a mile long and 25 storeys high. It will cost $10bn (£6.1bn, €7.4bn) to build and will constantly circumnavigates the globe.
The ship will accommodate 30,000 daily visitors, 10,000 nightly hotel guests, and 20,000 full time crew.
"This will be a very heavily capitalised project and the global economy in the last few years hasn't been too inviting for unproven progressive projects like ours," Roger Gooch, director and vice-president of Freedom Ship International, told the Telegraph.
"In the last six months we've been getting more interest in the project and we are hopeful we will raise the $1bn to begin construction," Gooch added.
Small airport
The 2.7-million tonne ship will be four times the length of the Queen Mary II and will be so large it will not be able to enter any existing port. There is no dockyard in the world big enough to build it.
As well as homes, Freedom Ship would contain hospitals, schools, shops, parks and a small airport.
Despite reports, the company said that the airport would not be able to accommodate aircraft the size of a Boeing 747.
"The largest aircraft this flight deck can accept are turboprop aircraft in the 38 to 40-passenger range," the company said.
Voyage
The ship will spend 70% of its times moored at locations around the world.
A circumnavigation of the world would take two years. The planned route runs from the east coast of the US to Europe, around the north of Scotland to Scandinavia, back down past France and Portugal into the Mediterranean, returning via the Strait of Gibraltar to pass the length of west Africa, then along the bottom of the Indian Ocean to Australia, southeast Asia, Japan and across to the West Coast of the US.
Freedom Ship: The route that the $10 Billion floating city will take every two years.
Is Freedom Ship a tax dodge?
On the project's website, the company seeks to clarify a number of misconceptions including the belief that it is a grand design to facilitate tax evasion.
"The Freedom Ship community has not been conceived as a tax haven. While the community itself will levy no taxes, citizens of countries such as the US would not realise any income tax savings by residing in or running businesses in the community, at least at the federal level, since American citizens are taxed on their worldwide income."
However the company does concede that residents of other countries "may realise tax savings by residing in or running businesses in the Freedom Ship Community".
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sorry to go against most of you guys on this, but this is a great concept. This is a libertarian/minarchist/anacho-capitalist dream. i saw his on lew rockwell the other day, so tylers are a little behind. this could be a floating city of freedom. i higly doubt the .001 % and ben bernanke are going to go for this, but it could be a great place for freedom loving individuals withthe financial ability to finally get away from thieving oppresive govts. you float around, independent from any big govt, central bank, etc. and mind your own business in internatinal waters. its probably about as likely to get built as bitcoin is as likely to beome the new worlds reserve currency, but this idea has potential
For only $999.95 per day, we can help you avoid oppressive governments! (What will it really cost? Anyone got the real number?)
Might work for non US citizens, but how about the US .1%'ers? They will not be able to jettison their tax obligations that easily
Bioshock was supposed to be dystopia.
SAME PROBLEM AS ALWAYS
Why does everyone have to think 100x or more larger scale than necessary? A huge number of benefits exist in creating much smaller versions of this and other nifty projects. I well understand "economy of scale", but this monster is way larger than "the sweet spot".
But perhaps it is me who is wrong. I've noticed most humans today are so utterly lacking in independent thought and self-confidence, that people are only willing to participate in things considered "so huge scale they must be legit". So... perhaps the problem is, nobody buys into smaller endeavors. I have seen that tendency. Sad world we live in.
I do agree that efforts like this are definitely worth doing, but another problem with being huge is... you are also an obvious target that cannot be missed. And I don't mean target for physical weapons, I mean target for the predators-that-be who watch for every large endeavor to sink their fangs into, and suck the blood from.
Another mistake is... it shouldn't move around. Locate in the part of the south pacific ocean that has the nicest weather, and stay put. How foolish to EVER enter territory claimed by the various predators-that-be! And what a waste of energy!
Ann,
This story is 100% bullshit, don't take it serious.
The rich would never bite even if it was 1/10 the size, nobody wants to be confined on a ship eating buffet slop out of a fucking 55gallon barrel, well except k-mart shoppers.
I do agree that small is nice, as a gourmet cook I often get in debates with idiots that you can serve 500 and its just the same as when you serve 5, ... no its not, in this case your serving 5,000 or 50,000.
Anyway its all bullshit, most of the worlds rich have a private island, and is much better than the 'boat', and its still the same as the 'boat', and if you have ever lived on a small island, then you would know you must go 'mainland' and often.
**
Love boats in reality have a bad name, when they're not sinking the crew is getting sick,
The kind of people attracted to 'love boats' tend to be fat asses, float to buffet to buffet all day when your not sitting on a cushion, or sitting in your 10 by 10 room watching TV. Fucking HELL LIFE.
***
Most rich like ASPEN, or private Islands in Hawaii, or Tuscan Italy, ... I think when the rich do spend a week or less on any kind of boat they usually want off, the rule of thumb when living on a boat is every day on the boat it gets 1/10 smaller, unless your a solo skipper minded person, most go mad living on a boat eventually after all it really is just a floating prison.
***
ZH needs blogger-fodder ( food for commenters, ... ) so keep it coming.
How about some AIPAC or BIS? Storys?
Yes, I think you're pretty much right. IF there is a market for anything remotely like this, I believe it would have to be home to NOT-rich, NOT-poor, NOT-morons somehow. Perhaps the 0.00001% who are serious about liberty and also entrepreneurial.
But frankly, one reason they need to attempt something like this but with a vastly smaller scale implementation, is to FIND OUT who would be interested... and why.
I've never been on a cruise ship, so I don't know how revolting they are.
Frankly, what they should do... if anything... is figure out some modular design composed of dozens, hundreds or thousands independent (perhaps hexagonal) floating home-offices that can connect and disconnect when an as desired.
This would serve to keep the open space between individuals/couples/families greater, permit reconfiguration so like-minded people could freely congregate together and/or nearby each other, and even disconnect and float away [in good weather] for even more privacy and independence.
This also delivers a huge advantage of economy of scale. What I mean is, each hexagonal "dwelling-unit" (say 50 square meters == 500 square feet) would be fundamentally the same as every other, and therefore be mass-produced in large quantities at low prices (by some Chinese company, of course). Each individual or couple or family would connect as many 50 square meter hexagons together as necessary to suit their needs.
Anyway, just off the top of our heads we can see how awkward and "white elephant" this configuration is. But something makes people go crazy when they imagine ideas like this. Those of us who have actually designed, developed and implemented REAL projects understand how enormous any "white elephant" project would be. Be even more important, white elephants will almost surely be claustrophobic and subject to massive failures and problems, just as you say, and just as cruise ships suffer. Which is why a modular scheme is so much better. Let it grow as far as it makes sense (which you learn as it grows), and when it reaches a point where the hassles of becoming larger exceed the advantages, you just start up a new collection of hexagons a few hundred meters or a few kilometers away.
Annie got her gun.....
More later (logically this should be below my previous reply).
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Here are a few factoids for anyone needing or wanting facts about this topic.
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factoid #1
6 years ago Doug Casey announced his "La Estancia de Cafayate" (LEC) community in Argentina for liberty oriented types, which he characterized as vaguely something like a modern version of "Galt's Gulch". The land was already purchases. A very nice golf clubhouse was already built. It was obviously real, and looked fairly likely to be completed.
Today LEC is virtually completed. They've sold about 300 of the 400 lots, finished the 18-hole golf course, finished the health-club and spa, and just about everything else. But here we are, 6 years later, and there are only about 20 homes built, and a few more in constructure --- well under 10% of the lots. This even though LEC is absolutely and obviously an extremely gorgeous place, and very well executed.
Also, of the 300 lots sold, 100 are up for resale, which mean, over 1/3 are already backing out, while the majority only hold their little lot, but still have to pay $550 per month for HOA fees.
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factoid #2
Simon Black [supposedly] purchased an 1100 acre farm. He promised to divide the farm into ~50 lots and sell to liberty types for about $200,000 to $300,000 each. He refused to give anyone any information... unless they flew down to Chile to see the farm. Simon claimed that far more than 1000 people flew down to look at the lots, and more than 500 said "I have the money and I want to buy now". That's what he claimed.
What did he do? He canceled the whole project. Depending on how you parse his words, the implication can easily be (and reads this way to me), "Hey, I'm not willing to share my farm with a bunch of lowlifes". I mean, why else would he refuse to let ANYONE live on his property after 500 people offered to buy?
Did he really have ANY actual offers? How can we know?
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factoid #3
Another project was started about 30km west of Santiago a year or two ago, called "Freedom Orchard". They call themselves "pro-life libertarians". That term itself is enough to make my head spin around a few dozen times! Anyway, they seem to have only received payment from a few people in that time, and they don't really even own the property due to failure to pay the owner as originally promised, though they may have an extension, hoping for more to buy lots. They have constructed almost no infrastructure as far as I can tell.
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factoid #4
A very much better funded project started less than a year ago, just north of "Freedom Orchard", associated with Jeff Berwick and the "dollar vigilante", which is an anarchist-libertarian oriented newsletter somewhat similar to Simon Black. They were offering 15 "founders club" lots (25 acres) for $320,000 each... which these founders would receive a 100% refund over the next 3 years. This plus 30 or 40 smaller lots (1 to 5 acres) at "introductory prices" from $50K to $150K (but no refunds). They appear to have finally "sold" the 15 "free" founders club lots after about 7 months, but still have a few of the other lots available at those introductory prices.
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Okay, what implications can we draw from this? Well, I am the first to say that I am very sad that LEC hasn't worked out better. I would love to say there is a dynamic community at LEC today (6 years later, with every luxury available). But I can't. It appears like 20 or 30 owners live there now (some in the neighboring town of Cafayate), and they seem to be wonderful people who love LEC and Cafayate.
But... looking at all the above evidence, what is the bottom line implication? That people are not even responding in numbers to even the gorgeous and now finished community at LEC. Almost half the lots owners want to sell their lots, even though virtually zero negative words have been uttered about that community, and endless positive remarks are made by members and friends of the Casey empire.
How can we understand this? Here are possibilities:
#1: People really won't leave the USSA for freer pastures.
#2: People who really WILL leave the USSA for freer pastures... are so independent minded that even living in a very open, very rural community for anarchists and libertarian types... is too "communal".
#3: What are other possible reasons?
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My purpose to mention these factoids is this. If LEC and these other places are doing so poorly, even after 6 freaking years, and at least one stellar implemenation, how can anyone hope to fill up one of those monsterous floating cities?
I don't know.
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Just speaking for myself, I did pick up stakes and leave the USSA ~3 years ago. And I did consider LEC. And I believe I would probably be very happy at LEC today. But I chose to move to the extreme boonies and establish a self-sufficient place for myself (complete with solar-power, water-collection and filtration and purification, greenhouse, and my own tiny little aircraft to fly 200~300km to get supplies every month or three). The total cost was... about 2/3 what it would have cost me to buy a lot at LEC and build an equivalent size home (given their CCRs). Yes, even buying my own brand new high-tech airplane. However, I really am an outlier personality, a real hermit type at heart. So my choice doesn't really explain the rest.
Ann! Love your commentary, keep it coming!
As far as your post... I don't think there are any High Net Worth Individuals buying from Doug Casey... Which means even less are buying from Simon Black or Jeff Berwick... Those guys are for the middle class wannabes...
Just my 2 cents...
Z
Not all of us can afford to move.
Agree. And much respect to those that work hard to feed themselves, their families and manage to get by in difficult times. Me and my +1 put in long hours, plenty of 12+hr days. We worked hard at home and just as hard from abroad, took considerable financial risk, left comfortable jobs, spent years planning it, but I won't deny our many privileges to do so...
Perhaps it's worth mentioning, these floating boat stories are essentially nothing more than feelers. Much like this site. Like BitCoin. They are one of many litmus tests that help gauge the timing for change, and of course serve other useful purposes. Rather than be paranoid, be thankful they are out there, it all points towards a system that contains a certain degree of control rather than chaos, a system despite it's failings, wishes to have at least a certain level of harmony in transition even if it is based on its own self-survival.
The "Crisis" was 2008 by most accounts. I stepped on board in the late 90's and some of the old timer's back then were relics from the 70's and decades before... in the 90's it felt like the best band few knew of, and I'm sure the real old timers will rightfully scoff at any hubris of "the 90's." Bubble freaks and gold goobly gook. Loved it. Bought lots of nuggets back then. All crazy, like desert heretics with cracked lipped prophesies... These last 5 years though, everyone jumping on the wagon wearing the t-shirt and the quality is just crap. And then the panic, Black and the others want to clean-up as always... Mere revivalists selling the timeless tonic.
Perhaps it's best to think of the article as a marketing strategy for customers that can not afford the product: "what will convince you to buy this shit?" Or at least talk about it.... The truth is yes, it's going to get worse. But again it's relative. It's already worse in most places of the world outside of the US. If you are on this site you likely care about money for it's practical and survival capabilities rather than prestige. Consider that all of GB and Europe is getting fleeced compared to us, whether that be taxes, consumer prices, wages, living space per/sq meter, utility prices... They are very nice people over here but suprisingly somewhat excuse-makers while getting comfortably screwed. The Dick that would be, would like to now extend that to you... Within reason of course. The word "Crisis" over here, it is not a word, rather a substance, like cabbage fodder fed to populace with collective, apologetic farts abound, an accidental nudge, "Phhlggh....Sorry, it's the Crisis!" They've accepted it with three little words, "It's the Crisis..." It usually follows a tilt of the head and/or simultaneous shrug of shoulders. They all do it and they all say it. They seem very much resigned. Quite intelligent and caring people so I mean no disrespect, but worth mentioning, we don't quite talk like that, I don't think many of us feel that way in the States yet, but it's everywhere in the Euro. So maybe now it's our turn for VAT and taxes and regulation up the a-hole. It's still a far cry from the fictitious FEMA camp fears which seem as unreal as the billion dollar Freedom Barn...
So Bunny, will you stay or leave? Or make excuses..? The truth is it's probably better to stick it out. Nothing like a sell-out rock anthem that in the end, tells you to live at home with your parents... Sorry. My take is, it's not going to be all that bad and to be honest there is no where to go if you're roaming based on security... This thread was started on the idea of "freer pastures"... What a silly, silly joke. Please someone name one, ...Malaysia? Thailand? Indonesia? Chile? Switzerland? Sweden? the Freedom Ship?? It just gets absolutely ridiculous to think there is a place on earth that offers more freedom and opportunity than the States despite our struggles these last 12 + years.
I spent time in Argentina early on for one reason, the "Crisis" was for real, they ("The Europeans of South America") flipped em' the bird, defaulted and took their lumps; what better place to understand the future, to live and talk with people and see what it meant to them, and with all the handicaps of a non-native get what you can out of it, what was the change and current reality on the ground for the average and not so average Joe. What did they know about it and how did it change how they see their current situation. Well, a fair # of you on this site have been there and seen it too. It's not an easy summary, but let's say, they got past the period of apology and the simplicity of human resiliance is universal and never ending. To know that, first hand, for me, is worthwhile. As far as this USSA bullshit, gated foreign communities and freedom frigates... Well, if you want to leave the States, then do it for the right reason. Consider leaving not as a prophetic refugee nor exile but as one who is curious to experience the world first-hand, and perhaps hedge a bet on a world unknown to you... Just because you can.
Thanks for all the good info.
I think it takes a lot of time to fill a community of like-minded people. You're talking about packing up your life and moving. It's not like changing underwear. The people who can afford these types of ventures are already rich, which means they already have more freedom than us slaves and less incentive to move.
"How can we understand this:"
#1: People really won't leave the USSA for freer pastures.
#2: People who really WILL leave the USSA for freer pastures... are so independent minded that even living in a very open, very rural community for anarchists and libertarian types... is too "communal".
#3: What are other possible reasons?
(4) And then there is the real reason that most Americans will not leave. The $USD -there are still plenty of good times in the USA despite all the shit talk. Actually get out and experience the difference. Look around. A fair # of semi-rich Frenchies left after the last election and headed for London upper-crust jobs and regular folks living on the French edge work in Geneva for an economic reason. Plenty of young out-of-work Irish leaving in droves for Canada and Auss. Young Spaniards, Italians all over Berlin. Where's the work in South/Central America for North Americans? It's not there. And if you believe in the dollar collapse, Chile and Argentina will see hard times like most of the world. Most people still need to work.
*****
These floating cribs and lots are nothing more than vacuum cleaners, sucking up the $'s of those who still wet the bed. Once their rubber sheets are taken from them they'll cry for the flotilla that was never built. Schemers shlepping schemes, they can make it rain, turn lead to gold and save your soul if you just let them.. take that 10%... My God, look at the pearly handles on that casket -Whoa!
For the rest of us, we leave because we can, because we worked hard to make it happen, we wanted to leave regardless the bullshit because we have reverence for life experience and would rather live a story than read one. And it is surely not a holiday novella or a floating barn. No other motive need be necessary for this lifestyle. For some of us, our whole life has been, just like this.
I like your message and your comments. And I mostly agree, but I guess I did not formulate some of my questions quite right. Lots of people answer with absolutely true, absolutely non-debatable replies like "Most people don't have the money" and "Most people are wimps" and "most people are short term thinkers" and "most people can still earn more money with less hassle in the USSA", etc.
All true.
However, I shouldn't have asked the question this way. What I was thinking implicitly was... "out of 300-million north americans, and perhaps 1-billion gringos/westerners living in corrupt, dying, increasingly aggressive, nasty, police-state empires, why have fewer than 100 moved to expat communities in less unfree places?".
In other words, I know most people are not candidates for doing anything 1% outside what they consider "normal", but... less than 100? In 6 freaking years? I mean, the total number of homes built and people living in these places is about 30... in 6 freaking years! And the writing has certainly been on the wall for MORE than 6 years.
That is my question. The numbers are... to me... astoundingly out of whack. And that's why I asked the question.
I would expect 999 out of 1000 to be in the "absolutely no freaking way" category. But out of 1-billion potential people, that leaves a freaking million candidates. Of course we don't know exactly how many individuals have done what I did... just move all by myself, and not even try to be close to an expat community (though I did seriously consider LEC).
I think we all know that for more than 20 or 30 people have moved to Ecuador in the past several years, and others to Panama and elsewhere in central america. So obviously there are at least hundreds and probably many thousands who moved just to central and south america.
But all evidence shows... almost nobody is moving into communities explicitly designed for them.
Of course your answer for that is correct --- very few people have enough savings to buy a lot at LEC and build a home. The absolute minimum to do that is half a million bucks, and then you're stuck with $1000 per month FOREVER to pay HOA fees and argentina asset taxes. Where does this income come from.
Nonetheless, your answer really isn't the answer, because it only explains why 99.9% don't take that option.
So I think your answer #2 may be more likely the primary answer. However, let me tell you one thing - the people at LEC are not hippies! Hahahaha... they are rich folks. Actually, a fairly large percentage are part of the Casey empire, plus others in that same general ilk (even Jeff Berwick has a lot at LEC, even as he promotes his own "GaltsGulchChile" near Santiago... hilarious!).
BTW, none of the expat-communities that I mentioned is anything like a "commune". They are all pretty much exactly like gated communities (sometimes without gates). They are entirely structured in the same way as commercial housing and condo developments in the USSA. And the agriculture some of them grow? That is not grown by their "commune members", that is done by locals and paid for out of the HOA fees. The closest to a "commune" of the ones I listed is probably "Freedom Orchard", but even that is actually a laughable term, since they are hard-core anti-choice super-conservatives. But it does at least fit part of the bill of being a commune in the sense of strongly [sorta] enforced political "philosophy".
You should go to one of the LEC "meetings"... where they eat luxury organic yummies and fine wine, served by their workers. It has the exact opposite of a commune feel, it has more the feel of a rich plantation in the south with abundant slaves to wait on your every whim. So... at least at LEC... your characterization is completely backwards (of course their "slaves" are paid, and can quit at any time).
I also agree with you that few people... even people who brag about being anarchists, libertarians, and rugged individualists... are comfortable in new environments. Clearly I'm different in this way. This probably starts with me actually liking and preferring solitude, liking and preferring figuring out how to do things for myself, even liking it when I am somewhere nobody speaks any language I do. All that makes it easy for me to ignore the "culture" and not feel part of it, and not expect their culture to "make everything convenient for me". Precisely the opposite... though when I do want to interact with someone, it feels like a fun game more than anything to overcome inability to communicate with language. I guess the short way to say this is... I feel comfortable without support from the "society" near me. And in my case, living 125km from the nearest tiny settlement of roughly 100 people, and about 250km from the nearest population center of roughly 10,000 people, I feel most comfortable of all, because to me, the only potentially likely or serious danger to me in this world is human beings. So to be far away from humans makes me feel profound peace and comfort.
BTW, I am a very picky eater, and quite afraid of unconventional foods. I'm actually quite terrible in this way. But I've never been anywhere in my 5 years of explorations before I chose my current spot where I could not find food I am comfortable eating.
You know, I am also extremely picky about how I live (peace, quiet, solitude), what kind of clothes I wear (soft and comfortable), what kind of mobility I have (my own airplane), what kind of climate I prefer (warm and dry or at least warm, and lots of sunshine), and so forth. I really AM extremely picky about almost everything. Which makes me wonder about your comment about people not being comfortable with anything that does not correspond to their habits. I believe you, but I'm guessing those aspects of life that drive them nuts (when they move) must be social issues, perhaps how people treat them (or ignore them, which I much prefer). To me, the world is full of wonderful places, and the only thing I can imagine I could not get past is... how people treat me. Yet I've never had problems with this in the rural places I've explored. Of course I cannot stand 99% of asia because I could never tolerate living in crowded places, or highly humid places with large temperature swings.
BTW, if anyone has the entrepreneurial spirit and ability, south america is a freaking gold mine... especially Chile (where they have more money to spend, and tolerate unbelievably high prices on anything that is not a basic necessity of life). Which means, I guess, that very few gringos have that spirit any more.
In my view, in 10 years people will look back and see how similar the development of the USSA has been over 30 to 50 years compared to nazi germany. Except it won't be the Jews who get screwed the most (and quite possibly the least), but anyone with a liberty or individualism orientation. That's who will fill the FEMA camps. And anyone who doesn't believe this really, really, REALLY should study up on what happened to absolutely 100% innocent, benevolent, even patriotic Japanese in the USSA after pearl harbor. So do not be surprised all you liberty FOOLs when you end up in FEMA camps, and ALL of you talking about how you were PLANING TO move out of dodge.
As I told my history teacher in 7th grade... the only thing I've learned about history, is that nobody ever learns anything from history.
And so they don't, even when they know history.
Well, I guess I did learn something from history... but not really. I just learned about human nature, which pretty much teaches the same lessons.
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Your comment about "floating vacuum cleaners" seems right on. The expat communities I know about are NOT collaborations, they are business ventures. While anyone is free to attempt such ventures, I keep pointing out how vastly cheaper small scale collaborations would be (3, 5, 8, 12 couples or families). Why pay a bunch of full-time salespeople when you can do it yourself (and I mean hire and oversee the contractors, not build the place yourself)?
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Perhaps your final paragraph is the most relevant answer. Those of us who had both the attitude AND savings are a far rarer breed than I realize. I don't like to believe that, but everything I see adds to the evidence you are correct.
Let me close with this. I did it. I started out exploring for the best place for me, then seriously considered LEC, but had to reject it because it was just beyond my ability to afford. So I found "my best spot on earth for me", designed my dwellings with 3D architecture software (which I purchased and learned for the purpose), ordered the materials (including solar-panels, battery-banks, etc), found "locals" (~250km away) to assemble and test the various components... then help me build a seriously screwball and somewhat dangerous temporary "bridge" across a slot canyon so we could drag all this stuff on flatbed trucks to my location, prepare the location, and set everything up. Add $140K for a brand new high-tech airplane (which has been the only way to get to my place since we removed that kludge bridge), and the whole shebang was about $350K. 100% self-sufficient (and a lot of work to design, assemble, disassemble, drag around and reassemble).
The payoff? I couldn't be happier! I'm at peace in paradise, and the only crazy sheeple-chimps I encounter are... on the forums at ZH. That's my limit. Hahaha.
And yes, though this is the first time I've designed and helped build a dwelling, in the more fundamental sense, my whole life has been "just like this". Congrats to you LGBR.
1)"but I guess I did not formulate some of my questions quite right....What I was thinking implicitly was... "out of 300-million north americans, and perhaps 1-billion gringos/westerners living in corrupt, dying, increasingly aggressive, nasty, police-state empires, why have fewer than 100 moved to expat communities in less unfree places?".
In other words, I know most people are not candidates for doing anything 1% outside what they consider "normal", but... less than 100? In 6 freaking years? I mean, the total number of homes built and people living in these places is about 30... in 6 freaking years"
I really AM extremely picky about almost everything. Which makes me wonder about your comment about people not being comfortable with anything that does not correspond to their habits.
I have a feeling I'm being dense, but I don't understand your reference to my sense of smell.
I don't remember any blush, but I don't understand your reference to people needing acceptance and needing to avoid shame and ridicule. Do you mean people don't move into LEC or other expat community because... their friends will think they're crazy? I dunno... especially with the luxuriousness of LEC, I don't see how anyone would feel shame or ridicule living there! But if you're correct, if people really are this worried and over-sensitive, then... why are so many more willing to vanish into some independent existence in some 3rd world country, but not in to a luxury digs with famous neighbors?
Oh, I definitely feel I am alone. Since I was 4 years old I've considered myself (metaphorically speaking) to be an alien observer just observing and making notes about earth and humans, but not at all identified with either (and more than I can help, being stranded here for the time being). So yeah, I'm totally comfortable with that characterization. But that doesn't mean I am always able to understand how extreme of an outlier I am on any given issue. Oh please, I hope I never achieve any significant degree of acceptance! Hahaha. But not at all kidding. My only reason to communicate in ZH is to provide ideas, thoughts and factoids to the vanishingly tiny percentage of folks who do share a few interests and attitudes with me, but might not have figured out how to implement them yet.
Well, I've never taken the path of least resistance! At least, not on any significant aspect of my life. Which is probably just another way of saying I don't live short term, that my actions are not guided by short term considerations, but rather long term ones. Though I will take immediate action to avoid some immediate danger, which on the surface looks short term oriented (but objectively is both short and long term). But at least part of your point is correct even about me. I lived alone for several years at a remote, mountaintop scientific research facility, which was completely self-sufficient, with solar-panels, wind-turbine, battery-banks, DC-to-AC converters, water-collectors, water-storage, water-filtration, and just about everything necessary for permanent self-sufficient living except food production (for which I would drive to town once every 3 months or so). But it had no communications: no TV, radio, phone, etc.
From that experience I absolutely confirmed without any doubt what I thought before from less extreme experiences... that I love solitude, that I feel safe, calm, happy and peaceful alone on my own (even in nominally and potentially dangerous environments, because I'm alert, careful and thoughtful), that I can keep diverse equipment operational even under extraordinary environmental conditions, and so forth. So when it came to finding a place in the extreme boonies, and designing and implementing a complete high-tech, self-sufficient dwelling and environment for myself, I did follow a path that I had largely traveled previously, and thus had more confidence in doing than some random fool. But geez, man! I'm just a single, wimpy high-tech chick, not some rugged mountain man... and definitely not some collaboration of several couples where the talent and expense (and backup) could be distributed and much easier to achieve.
Oh, and along these lines... if people "being afraid of change" was the biggest factor, you'd think they'd mostly go for those communities rather than just buy some random house somewhere in Ecuador or Panama or somewhere. But they don't. Far more go independent... though admittedly that just means buying a conventional home in a conventional suburb somewhere. Which is, I guess, what we're getting to here. So maybe the reason LEC has so few people is a reason I used to mention alot, but tend to forget somehow. That is, in the debt-world we live in today, almost nobody has enough net savings to spend $500,000 to $1,500,000 to live at LEC, but thousands if not a few million have $60,000 to $150,000 net savings to buy a modest place in Ecuador (where cost of living for necessities is also extremely low). That's probably more of a factor... that the number of people with $100K savings may be 1000 (??? 100,000 ???) times larger than the number with $600K+ savings.
Watch out for Iceburgs... Cough*
and large boulders and reefs when paralleling coastlines in the Mediterranean.....
You are no longer brutally removed from daily life to be delivered up to machines. But rather you are integrated: your childhood, your habits, your human relations, your unconscious instincts, even your rejection of work. You will certainly find a place for yourself in all of this, a personalized job, and if not, there is social welfare provision that is calculated based on your individualized statistics. In any case, you will never be left on your own. The important thing is that everyone be a terminal in the network, a tiny terminal, but a term nevertheless: certainly no inarticulate cry, but a linguistic term, and in terms of the whole structural network of language. The choice of occupation, the ideal of an occupation custom made for everyone means that the die is cast, that the system of socialization is complete. Labor power is no longer violently bought and sold; it is designed, it is marketed, it is merchandised. Production thus joins the consumerist system of signs.
- Jean Baudrillard, Symbolic Exchange and Death
I posted this link on Sunday. Suggested The Japaneese liver on blub blub...> Fuku something. squidbillies
'Freedom Ship'
The first thing you lose when you board the good ship 'Freedom' is your freedom.
Freedom to roam, drives most men nuts.
Only a fucking Wall Street banker 'guilty' and hell with remorse would want to go find this kind of 'freedom', and I think we can all agree that a banker or a politician with remorse is an urban myth.
This 'freedom ship' is for morons that want to ACT like the rich, sort of like eating white bread, or using a silver spoon.
*
They always name shit after that which they destroyed, in this case they destroyed your 'freedom' and now they have to sell a 'prison' to the rich. Good fucking luck with that.
Only little people will bite and at that it would be sold on time-shares for 5 by 5 foot rooms .
What about bedbugs?
The 1% think this is Valhalla, I see a castle that the barbarians can surround wait and starve them into submission.
Saw this several years ago. I don't think this ship will be built. They have been seeking funding for at least 10 years.
And I don't think the so called 1% would be interested in this floating hotel casino. No, no, this thing would attract middle to upper middle class.
And poor people who think they're going to hit the jackpot in the casino.
If you're a member of the 1% you can have your own boat and go where ever you want without having to deal with the tourist trap.
This concept was meant to attract people from whatever port it's in. Land on the deck, take a boat out, stay over night, blow all your money.
It's a floating Vegas casino hotel.
I just wonder how safe this boat would be on the open sea. From the map they provided, it would cross some dangerous sea's in my view.
I just don't see the 1%, I see your crazy old aunt smoking the foot long slim cigarettes pumping $20's into slot machines.
I see some FAT BITCOIN BITCH, where they bring her food from the BUFFET right to her slot machine. She never even has to move, just like that movie WALL-EYE.
They'll have to have a mortuary on board and cremate at sea, cuz there will be more dying aboard than boarding.
that's a big canoe..
Never, in the history of mankind, has there been a more fortuitous time to place labor wages into speculative endeavors. Whilst the benevolence of the Federal Reserve continues, buy stocks. Period. You will make triple fold. And nothing, will befall you.
I guess I just should've typed btfath. Good day sir.
With enough holes on the bottom of the hull and this thing will sink like a rock.
Anyone with enough wealth and brains would buy an island with guards away from the public, not be in one place that can be attacked.
and the flag with skull and bones at the top of the world
I hope they get marooned on Gilligan's island.
What they gonna eat on their swimming parking structure? For sure they have enough cans on board or Monsanto might drop them some modified organisms.
They had better armor that fucking Titanic. Every time it gets near to land, anybody with a peashooter, RPG, or LtS missle is gonna take a pop at it.
Then there's those drugged-up oil tanker pirates who will be taking a number for their turn at taking it hostage.
I can see them having a US Task Force to escort it. Of course at taxpayers' expense, for the god given privilege of having the exceptional people of the 1%. They didn't get to be the 1% by fully payin' for their weight on this adventure.
For security they could put cannons on top which fire serfs at attackers. Five years more, and there will be plenty more of that cheap ammo.
Delusions of grandeur; detaching from reality like I ain't even there...
Timeshares available today, and payable in BITCOIN, of course.
What a nice mapped out course... you build your ship, I'll build some naval mines. In the end everyone wins.
Let's also be honest, while this VIRTUAL SHIP may be on international water, that most of its occupants could never actually land in any country because they wouldn't meet the criteria,
Sort of like a boat of Cubans or Nigerians wanting to land in Miami, ...they would be turned around but the small print on the ship manifest doesn't remind you that "We take you around the world, and you 'can' get off, if the local authority's deem you fit to be on their fucking land".
Did anyone else notice that the route of this vessel does not go near the Persian Gulf or the coast of Somalia? Obviously there has to be a way to defend this vessel. Otherwise the Somali Pirates can board and take this thing over. Or the Chinese can use their carrier-killing missiles to sink this barge.
Brilliant. Fill it. Send it to sea. Sink it.
Under the paint it reads "Ship of Fools".
This is runner up to "drone delivery" for farce of the century.
I'd rather live in Detroit where there is some solid ground beneath my feet.
Somewhere, somehow Jamie and Blythe are launching a 100x levered, gazillion times rehypothecated "Freedom ship" short ETF while acquiring a torpedo building company.
only in my wildest dreams i've seen the top 1% all together in a boat.
boating accident anyone?
This is insane. The flees will never leave the dog, nor will the rats leave the ship. If they are all parasites who live of the stolen labour of others, why would they seperate from their hosts?
These are just hosts seeking freedom from being a tax and bailout slave by leaving the tax farms.
Two weeks in those things and they will be swimming in their own turds, having nobody to clean the pools for them.
Parasites always leave when the host is dead.
Forgot to add the cost of the carrier group required to protect this thing - this time round the taxpayer won't be picking up the tab.
once the shit hits the fan you ZHeeple will be scrambling to get on one of those, you'll be building these yourself to get away from your legacy land of the free (dinners).
because the only tax-free zones will be FEMA camps Obammie is building for you right now.
Those camps are going to be where we cook the PC tards and recycle their skins for lampshades.
What happen to the FEMA camps Bush built?????
HOW will the 1% escape?
The Flying Dutchman meme that this mega juggernaut envisions, is fed on the theme that 2014 will be the year of the Dragon as stated by the Big Investment banks :
Citi 2014 Global Economic Outlook - Business Insider
Wall Street Believes 2014 Is The year The Age Of Crisis Really Comes To An End - Business Insider
The End Of The End Of The World - Business Insider
This MSM Platform is now sending out reassuring vibes from the TBTF crowd that the DOOMERs and GLOOMERs cranky cabal and their apocalyptic prognosis in now TOAST; like the prices of PM Gold and Silver which sink like the spanish gallions of old.
The downside hedge has now to be shorn like sheeple fleece or the Ayatollah's Iranian beard.
Nostaferus yipes this will send Bitcoin to the moon along with Krugman's delight at seeing fiat claim its not toilet paper but the stuff of legends.
I think they have invented a new way of doing the MAth.
Meanwhle, who wants to buy a ticket on that "flying dutchman" cruiser?
PS / You can bet your bottom Krugman dollar that this boat will be sold to the Banksta crowd that lives in London City town under Boris of London's charms; fed on the 77% bankster community euphoria (as per ZH charts) that snuggles up to the Shard's spiky charms and dreams of living like Francis Drake on his Golden Hind for the trip around the world.
Dreams now fueled by this enormous spike of Britain's upcoming, just around the corner, industrial revival !
UK Construction PMI - Business Insider
Please don't use the word meme, in thirty years it will command the same respect as the word groovy.
Sorry, I didn't know it was you Pandora!
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman | Trailer and Cast - Yahoo Movies
I seriously doubt 1% would live on a ship like that. Sure, some might own a condo there, and visit it maybe once a year. But in general, they've got better alternatives. Mostly it would be inhabited by programmers, writers, anybody with an ability to telecommute. If you live in a country with oppressive government/atrocious taxation/shitty climate/civil unrest, this looks like a good idea.
Glad to see they are going past the coast of Nigeria. Go Pirates!
Yeah, being stuck on a giant cruise ship with thousands of other assholes sure sounds like "freedom" to me!
Personally, I like the "How convenient. They will all be in one place." comment....
A new twist on Escape from New York, with the added chance of drowning.
Two things simultaneously are occurring. We know that wealth has distributed to the favor of those wise and capable in the Investment arts of Global interaction.
We know to that the United States, being the only or one of a few, decided that citizens were State property as was the old rules of slavery. If one wanted to gain Freedom from the State they had to go through massive amounts of torturous legal maneuvering and massive cost to shed citizenship.
The second thing we see is increasing numbers of the rich doing exactly that allowing the discomfort to be laid at the feet of lawyers eager to collect the fat fees for this extraction. We are reportedly in this uncommon practice of buying one's Freedom from the State. We are also told that those who have done this are still tracked by our Justice Department and harrassed, amazing!
But is it just money or taxes? No! There are easier ways. Bermuda has its massive Tax reduction Operation for those individuals or Mega Corporations making money offshore like Google to send their money to Re-Insurance Subsidiaries run by Funds and individuals we all know! Tim Geithner, Einhorn, Paulson, D. Loeb Steve Cohen and others all with the seeming acquiescence of this President. This program takes massive amounts of off-shore profits, perhaps Trillions of dollars a year and effectively reduces the taxes owed from approximately 22%-35% down to 5%. This makes great commissions for the boys!
Our President needs to be honest in many ways where the truth has eluded him! The next blow will come to our Parents and grandparents living if they are middle class. The President took $716 billion from medicare in 2011 to pay for the growing Medicaid debt and initiation of ObamaCare for the poor. Now the medicaid debt will burgeon to unthinkable numbers under ObamaCare. Two things will occur so get ready! One: The States favored will get reimbursement. The ones not favored may not! AND: Many Services and facilities for the "Medicare" retired will disappear. Medical Services will be delayed and doctors will leave.
As our wealth leaves either by offshore wealth protection or, by buying their Freedom, It is logical to postulate a crisis and perhaps a State of Emergency. Interestingly, while that may be challenged legally, recent events in the Senate with the approval of certain 10th Circuit Judges by simple majority will be difficult getting past. Interesting that a rule not set aside for 96 years should be necessary for these Judges now?
In China during the Mao ascendency The Phrase "Be Chinese" meant show no wealth, hoard gold and tell no one." OR Run! We are seeing that here!
The Good book informs us all what will befall the evil system created and run by the morally corrupt:
After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. 2 With a mighty voice he shouted:
“‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’[a]
She has become a dwelling for demons
and a haunt for every impure spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.
3 For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”.............................................................................
.....................................
21 Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:
“With such violencethe great city of Babylon will be thrown down,
never to be found again.
22 The music of harpists and musicians, pipers and trumpeters,
will never be heard in you again.
No worker of any trade
will ever be found in you again.
The sound of a millstone
will never be heard in you again.
23 The light of a lamp
will never shine in you again.
The voice of bridegroom and bride
will never be heard in you again.
Your merchants were the world’s important people.
By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.
24 In her was found the blood of prophets and of God’s holy people,
of all who have been slaughtered on the earth.” Revelations 18
Stop calling it the "1 percent". This freaky boat can't contain more than about 30 000 people. 30 000/316 670 000 = 0.00009474 = 0.001%. That is a 1000x smaller number. 320 000 americans would be 1%. If you look at the numbers of americans relative to the world population it is even harsher. The thing is, if your household earn more than 20 000 USD/year you belong to the wealthiest 1%. Suck on that one for a minute..
$10 billion, say you want to pay it off in ten years, --> $1 billion per year, --> $2.7 million per day.
$2.7 million per day / (30000 day visitors + 10000 hotel guests) = approx $70 per visitor per day purely to pay off the principal.
Hey, maybe this is do-able (assuming 100% occupancy 100% of the time).
Of course, now we have to add interest, running costs and staff (at a 1:2 ratio - 2 customers pay for one staff. Maybe they'll hire all Mexican Chinese Bangladeshi staff? Pay the staff in magic "Freedom Ship" money?)
I guess it really does come down to that 40000 guests per day. Perhaps I wasn't far off with my earlier $999.95 estimate.
Bernanke and the Boyz only need to divert three days of QE to this project that could save their lives!
The 1% fill the ship with steerage. That's why they call it "freedom."