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I’ve always wondered how hard it would be to start your own country, people start new companies all the time to solve problems, I think it’s time we start a new

I’ve always wondered how hard it would be to start your own country, people start new companies all the time to solve problems, I think it’s time we start a new country for the first time in how many years? Maybe a government that actually does respect privacy and doesn’t just throw it out the window because of “terrorism” or whatever the thing of the moment might be. Also would be nice to live somewhere that doesn’t have atrocious wars on its historical record or hundreds of years of exploitation of other peoples.

bserge 5y ago
I think the closest you can get these days is a village in some poor but relatively stable country. In Eastern Europe for example. The government will ignore a lot of things for a pretty long time as long as you're building, doing stuff and paying taxes. But an independent country? Maybe on a bunch of ships in international waters. Otherwise you'll quickly find yourself with a small army at your "borders". Too many people these days, soldiers, guns and ammunition are cheap and all land is taken.
personlurking 5y ago
An idea I've heard is that some tech billionaire decides to purchase a little-used state of another country - say in Central America - and turns it into a technolibertarian country of sorts. While treating it like a company, and thus paying the country for its use, iirc.
nyokodo 5y ago
> I’ve always wondered how hard it would be to start your own country Really really hard. You have only a few choices and they're all terrible. First one is revolution, see history for how that tends to go. Second is conquest and then colonization followed by eventual independence, again see history for how much this sucks for your stated aims. Seasteading might work but if you develop and build the stuff to make it work you're unlikely to get any acknowledgement of your statehood from any other nation but might get attacked by them [1]. The last option is outer space somewhere and self-sufficient space colonies are still science fiction and once they're not the early pioneers are going to die a lot and their living situation is going to be awful. 1: https://reason.com/2019/10/14/how-two-seasteaders-wound-up-marked-for-death/ https://reason.com/2019/10/14/how-two-seasteaders-wound-up-m...
csomar 5y ago
Technically, it is not hard (assuming you have the money). Your biggest hurdle is getting some sort of recognition from other countries. Enough to be able to trade, and enough not to be bombed by some military out there. An island will be a perfect choice as it'll be hard for "refugees", terrorists and militias to slip through your borders. Your next hurdle is getting a police / army force as police can take over your city if they are not faithful to you. Since you can't protect your island, you'll need some diplomatic deal with a bigger country (USA, France, China, etc...) to pledge for your protection. Gotta pay them somehow for that kind of protection. Don't be deluded. There are no dictators out there, but representations of the current forces and powers. At some duration in the timeline of this earth, the powers and forces enabled the creation of democratic nations with generous freedoms afforded to its citizens. Of course this would change as these powers and forces shift. Australia is a de-facto military dictatorship given that it is a resource-export-oriented nation. The forces at the time (being part of the Common Wealth and an ally to the US) has made it a democratic and free country.

bserge 5y ago

I think the closest you can get these days is a village in some poor but relatively stable country. In Eastern Europe for example. The government will ignore a lot of things for a pretty long time as long as you're building, doing stuff and paying taxes. But an independent country? Maybe on a bunch of ships in international waters. Otherwise you'll quickly find yourself with a small army at your "borders". Too many people these days, soldiers, guns and ammunition are cheap and all land is taken.

personlurking 5y ago

An idea I've heard is that some tech billionaire decides to purchase a little-used state of another country - say in Central America - and turns it into a technolibertarian country of sorts. While treating it like a company, and thus paying the country for its use, iirc.

nyokodo 5y ago

> I’ve always wondered how hard it would be to start your own country Really really hard. You have only a few choices and they're all terrible. First one is revolution, see history for how that tends to go. Second is conquest and then colonization followed by eventual independence, again see history for how much this sucks for your stated aims. Seasteading might work but if you develop and build the stuff to make it work you're unlikely to get any acknowledgement of your statehood from any other nation but might get attacked by them [1]. The last option is outer space somewhere and self-sufficient space colonies are still science fiction and once they're not the early pioneers are going to die a lot and their living situation is going to be awful. 1: https://reason.com/2019/10/14/how-two-seasteaders-wound-up-marked-for-death/ https://reason.com/2019/10/14/how-two-seasteaders-wound-up-m...

csomar 5y ago

Technically, it is not hard (assuming you have the money). Your biggest hurdle is getting some sort of recognition from other countries. Enough to be able to trade, and enough not to be bombed by some military out there. An island will be a perfect choice as it'll be hard for "refugees", terrorists and militias to slip through your borders. Your next hurdle is getting a police / army force as police can take over your city if they are not faithful to you. Since you can't protect your island, you'll need some diplomatic deal with a bigger country (USA, France, China, etc...) to pledge for your protection. Gotta pay them somehow for that kind of protection. Don't be deluded. There are no dictators out there, but representations of the current forces and powers. At some duration in the timeline of this earth, the powers and forces enabled the creation of democratic nations with generous freedoms afforded to its citizens. Of course this would change as these powers and forces shift. Australia is a de-facto military dictatorship given that it is a resource-export-oriented nation. The forces at the time (being part of the Common Wealth and an ally to the US) has made it a democratic and free country.