4 ms·
Problems: - Of the countries in the world, none are really free, and generally have quite burdensome taxes relative to their benefits. - Representative democr
by Sordelia 6y ago
Problems:
- Of the countries in the world, none are really free, and generally have quite burdensome taxes relative to their benefits.
- Representative democracy has not improved a whole lot from the v1.0 created a few hundred years ago. For example, voting is largely between "person I don't really like" and "person I hate," and you're just 1 vote in millions, meaning voting is irrational (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_voting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_voting)
- In referendums, people vote without really knowing much about what they're voting on.
- There's a lot of people who want to move to a better country, but immigration policies are very restrictive.
Solution:
- To create a new country, Sordelia, based on liberty, sortition, and deliberative democracy.
- Laws are voted on based on a small, randomly selected citizen's assembly. The random selection keeps the assembly small, so every vote counts, yet is statistically significant so that, if a law passes, we're highly confident it would've passed before all the voters. This assembly will learn and debate the pros and cons of the proposal before voting.
- Laws that would violate fundamental principles (like freedom of speech) are disallowed.
- We aim to purchase land from a developing country. There are plenty of good reasons they'd sell to us, beyond the immediate payment. The developing population and infrastructure will bring an increase in trade and jobs for their country. There have been many historical examples of special economic zones (SEZs) having positive influence on their neighbors, and Sordelia's effect on nearby countries will be similar.
- We'll have pro-growth and pro-immigrant policies to attract people to our country.
- The rise of remote work makes this even more attractive for moving to Sordelia.
If this interests you, join us at:
https://sordelia.org/ https://sordelia.org/
- satyrnein 6y agoHave any countries voluntarily sold off territory in recent history? How do you protect this territory once you have it, including from the previous owner?
- lipstone 6y agoI'm intrigued by the idea but I have some reservations: 1.) How likely is this to actually happen? Are there any talks with nations for purchasing land? How many members would actually uproot their entire lives to go live in this experimental nation? 2.) I'm absolutely a libertarian, but even if I have to admit that some of those that care so deeply as to self-select for something like this are likely to have some... oddities. 3.) Libertarian principles have never been very popular with women, so I imagine most of the interested parties are men. If this were to last for a long period of time, I would imagine that most of the unmarried men would compensate for that by finding wives from the neighboring developing nations. I don't have anything against that, but I feel like this new nation would quickly get the reputation of being Thailand 2.0.
- vfinn 6y agoSo changing "constitution" isn't possible? :)
- rxsel 6y agoHas this (Peacefully purchasing/acquiring land to establish a new state) ever been done in the past? The capital to do it is certainly there.