This is exactly what puzzles me. I live in Minnesota and there is a TON of cheap land out there. Seasteading is not about cheap real-estate. It is about reduci

This is exactly what puzzles me. I live in Minnesota and there is a TON of cheap land out there. Seasteading is not about cheap real-estate. It is about reducing the barrier to exit, in order to encourage healthy competition between nations for customers (e.g. citizens). http://www.seasteading.org/stay-in-touch/press-releases/introducing-the-seasteading-institute http://www.seasteading.org/stay-in-touch/press-releases/intr... "The world needs a new model of politics where a diverse ecosystem of providers offers a variety of institutions that evolve to serve their citizens. The open oceans, Earth's last frontier, are the ideal place to nurture this vision of a better world. By making it safe and affordable to settle this frontier, we will give people the freedom to choose the government they want instead of being stuck with the government they get. http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aseasteading.org+monopoly http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aseasteading.org+monopo... The Industry of Government Think of government as an industry. Citizens pay taxes, for which they receive government services. Each government has a monopoly over one geographic area, but citizens can switch providers by moving to other countries. This industry has two main features that make it horribly uncompetitive. ❑ High cost of switching providers: The first is the cost of switching providers. Because of the geographic monopoly, in order to change governments, you have to change countries. That means you have to leave your job, sell your house, pack your possessions, leave your friends, apply for new citizenship, get a new job, buy a new house, and so foth. This cost is enormous compared to any other service provider switch (cell phones, car insurance, even employers). Because of this people are unlikely to do it very often. For it to be worthwhile to move, the difference to an individual between two governments must be higher than this huge cost. This dramatically reduces market feedback for providers of government services. So its natural for govts to exploit the current customer base, because of this huge barrier keeping them from leaving.