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I read about these charter cities a few years ago [0]. All the theory around them seemed to have this libertarian zeal about it that kind of put the foreign inv

by yardie 3y ago

I read about these charter cities a few years ago [0]. All the theory around them seemed to have this libertarian zeal about it that kind of put the foreign investors ahead of the local, voting population. And basic government functions (voting, taxes, police) were simply ignored or not fully explained. BTW, for the Americans, there are lots of charter cities going up in Puerto Rico. And they are also unpopular because rich foreigners pay lower or no taxes compared to a PR citizen. [0] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-politically-incorrect-guide-to-ending-poverty/308134/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-pol...

cpursley 3y ago
Not all of them, these have led to real non-tourism job growth in PR. And PR is US territory, the tax breaks are for citizens who move from the mainland - not foreigners. It’s actually a great setup for software companies who are required to hire some locals.
Loughla 3y ago
Is this the latest incarnation of disaster capitalism? In the 00's, companies were content to just capture the government and make it into what they wanted. Now it's an explicit agreement that they can do what they want? Those are real questions and not just snark, regardless of how snarky I actually feel about this entire thing.
roenxi 3y ago
I am cautious in supporting these particular cities, since democratic primacy is a critical right that empirically leads to better results. That dealt with, there is a frame here where democratic power is preserved. The idea is that voting is done with the feet. There are a lot of obvious ways that is worse than voting by vote, but it is a much more powerful action. In the long term that sort of charter city would need to transition to either a more standard model or something like the City of London - eventually becoming a tightly controlled geographic area where not a lot of people actually live. It worked well for the UK, I imagine it would work well elsewhere. If anything, corporate control runs the risk of being too effective and ending up as the command structure of some sort of colonial superpower.

by yardie 3y ago

cpursley 3y ago

Not all of them, these have led to real non-tourism job growth in PR. And PR is US territory, the tax breaks are for citizens who move from the mainland - not foreigners. It’s actually a great setup for software companies who are required to hire some locals.

Loughla 3y ago

Is this the latest incarnation of disaster capitalism? In the 00's, companies were content to just capture the government and make it into what they wanted. Now it's an explicit agreement that they can do what they want? Those are real questions and not just snark, regardless of how snarky I actually feel about this entire thing.

roenxi 3y ago

I am cautious in supporting these particular cities, since democratic primacy is a critical right that empirically leads to better results. That dealt with, there is a frame here where democratic power is preserved. The idea is that voting is done with the feet. There are a lot of obvious ways that is worse than voting by vote, but it is a much more powerful action. In the long term that sort of charter city would need to transition to either a more standard model or something like the City of London - eventually becoming a tightly controlled geographic area where not a lot of people actually live. It worked well for the UK, I imagine it would work well elsewhere. If anything, corporate control runs the risk of being too effective and ending up as the command structure of some sort of colonial superpower.