The Parable of the Seasteader

Can Libertarianism Create Liberty at Sea?

Peter had become a billionaire by creating value in the free market, offering goods that consumers wanted for prices that earned him a profit. But Peter, despite his wealth, was unhappy; for Peter was a libertarian. That meant he was oppressed by an unjust government that violated his natural rights in countless ways. He, a private citizen, had never used force or fraud, having lived his life only by the free and voluntary exchange of value with other free men and women; but government engaged in ceaseless force against him. It forced him to pay property tax on his own property, and to pay income tax on his own wages. It was, in short, a tyranny.

Despite his melancholy, Peter became a trillionaire, and decided to use his funds to create a libertarian utopia. For the cost of a mere $250 billion, he established a seastead, a permanent dwelling outside of the territorial waters of any government.

Peter knew that his seastead would be threatened by tyrannical governments. Fortunately, using the voluntary labor of fairly-paid scientists who had signed IP assignment agreements that gave him perpetual exclusive rights to their inventions, he had developed a death ray that could destroy a city at the press of a button. Having installed this death ray on his seastead, he informed the leaders of the world that he would use his death ray if necessary to justly defend his life, liberty, and property against those who used force and fraud against him. Since the destruction of their cities would have reduced their tax base, the leaders of the world wisely agreed that Peter’s seastead should be left alone.

Peter then renounced his citizenship in the tyrannical country that he had previously resided in. He was now, finally, a free man. But Peter soon realized that man is a social animal; bluntly, being alone on his seastead sucked. Even the latest model sex android didn’t compensate for the company of others of his species.

Therefore, Peter decided to invite immigrants to join him on his seastead. However, Peter knew that inviting others to live on his seastead was risky. Not every human being had made the choice to live by reason in order to flourish through the voluntary exchange of value through the harmony of interests, so some means of enforcing the right to life, liberty, and property might be required. Therefore, using the voluntary labor of fairly-paid scientists who had signed IP assignment agreements that gave him perpetual exclusive rights to their inventions, he built an army of killer robots that could protect his life, liberty, and property, as well as the life, liberty, and property of people who voluntarily immigrated to his seastead.

Each immigrant had to agree to a terms of service in order to become a resident. Peter’s terms of service were written out clearly, provided in advance, and fairly enforced. Everyone had to consent to them for as long as they made use of the seastead, which was entirely fair and right, because it was Peter’s private property, after all. Those who did not consent were, of course, trespassers and could be dealt with as such, as they had forcibly entered Peter’s property.

1. All residents had to agree to renounce the use of force and fraud; to uphold the obligations of any and all contracts they entered into; to respect the property rights defined in the terms of service, as updated from time to time; to respect the code of conduct defined in the terms of service, as updated from time to time; to agree to arbitration by Peter to resolve any differences with regard to the terms of service, or the actions of any residents of the seastead with regard to such terms, as updated from time to time; and to agree to voluntarily accept such rulings that the arbitrator may lay down, including but not limited to imprisonment, as updated from time to time.

2. In order to defray the cost of arbitration, and enforcement of arbitration, residents had to agree to pay a percentage of their annual income to Peter. The amount of income required was a sliding scale based on their total income. Peter called this fees “income taxes.”

3. In order to defray the costs of the death ray that protected the seastead, Peter charged residents a duty equal to the percentage of the value of all goods imported to the seastead. He called these fees “custom duties.”

4. The entire seastead was held in allodium by Peter. At no point did any portion of the seastead cease to be his private, personally-owned property. However, residents could purchase vested, inheritable, present possessory interest in parts of the seastead (fees simple) from him. They could also sell or bequest their fees simple to others, although doing so did not change the fact that Peter retained the allodial title.

5. In order to allow Peter to earn a just return on the value of his private property, holders of these fees simple were required to pay annual fee to the allodial owner, Peter, based on the value of the land. Peter called these fees “property taxes.”

6. No one who had not agreed to the terms of service was permitted on the seastead. By perpetual covenant in the title to their property, fee simple property holders were even forbidden to have guests on their fee simple estates unless the guests agreed to the terms of service of the seastead. Minority children, not being rational human beings capable of voluntary exchange of value, were excluded from this requirement provided that their parent or guardian took responsibility for their actions; but upon reaching majority, the newly-turned adults had to agree to the terms of service or depart from the seastead.

7. If a resident violated the terms of service of the seastead in such a way that he had caused damage to the seastead or its residents, the terms of service mandated that the resident could be imprisoned and forced to do labor until he had compensated the seastead and/or resident he had damaged.

8. Apart from the above, residents of the seastead were free to depart at any time. Everyone’s residence was purely voluntary. Peter only wanted residents who understand that he was offering value in exchange for value and saw their residence as mutually beneficial.

After many years, Peter grew old, and despite receiving frequent blood plasma transfers from adolescent residents, eventually passed away. Prior to his death, however, he contracted through free and voluntary exchange of value with a variety of other residents to create a not-for-profit foundation, which he called the United Seastead Anarcho-Capitalists, Inc. (USA, Inc.) USA, Inc. would carry out his management duties over the seastead. Control of the death ray and killer robots, ownership of the allodial property, rights to the various taxes, and authority to enforce and update the terms of service was transferred to this foundation.

Peter decided that his foundation would have a President and a Board of Directors. The Board of Directors would be elected for 4 year terms by a vote of every resident who paid property taxes, and the Board would appoint the President. Peter’s various management duties were then delegated to the President, while updating the terms of service (and the related code of conduct) was left to the Board of Directors. All of these decisions were codified into a written document, which Peter called the Constitution of the USA.

Many years passed. Over time, the managers of the USA changed the terms of service and the code of conduct in various ways, but at all times, the USA remained a private foundation and the seastead remained its private property, collecting revenues, enforcing rules, and restricting residency through its allodial ownership. Residents always retained the right to leave if they found that the voluntary free exchange of value for value did meet their needs as consumers. In time, Peter became a semi-mythical figure, remembered mostly by the enormous phallic monument to him at the center of the seastead, the Founding Father of the USA, Inc.

It was in the 244th year After Peter that Jeff became a billionaire by creating value in the free market of the seastead, offering goods that consumers wanted for prices that earned him a profit. But Jeff, despite his wealth, was unhappy; for Jeff was a libertarian. That meant he was oppressed by the unjust management of the USA that violated his natural rights in countless ways. He, a private citizen, had never used force or fraud, having lived his life only by the free and voluntary exchange of value with other free men and women; but the management of the USA engaged in ceaseless force against him. It forced him to pay property tax on his own property, and to pay income tax on his own wages. It was, in short, a tyranny…

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I first thought up this parable about 20 years ago, when I was trying to work through whether I ought to be a minarchist or anarcho-capitalist. The parable was made possible by my discovery of the legal distinction between allodial and fee simple estates, which is largely overlooked in contemporary thought. I encourage you to follow the links and consider the implications.