is this a tax dodge? anchor outside of anyone's territorial waters?
"does everyone have to attend "lifeboat drill" on the day they move in, like on a cruise ship?"
I doubt it; there is a whole lot of ocean out there.
I've seen similar ideas pushed since the 1980s, at least. It never seems to come to anything, though.
Yeah, I first heard about it back in the 90s, I think.
I'm surprised that nobody has really done something like this on a commercial basis, as a destination instead of a home. Picture the business model: float a little "city" just 12 miles off the shore of a major population center -- preferably one with lots of pesky rules and regulations like NYC. From there, sell all the experiences that are illegal in NYC: underage drinking, any drug you can name, prostitution, gambling, bull fighting, exotic dining (foie gras, blowfish, and other delicacies outlawed on the mainland for various reasons), etc. It could be a little "sin city," just a 15-minute ride by high-speed ferry from the shore. It could also be a way to have discount medical services, by people who aren't licensed in the US... or medical services that are either illegal or inconvenient to obtain on the mainland (for example, dock off the shore of one of those states that's shut down all their abortion clinics or outlawed late-term abortions).
Not really the same thing, but there are actually some cruise ships that have basically been converted into traveling condominiums. They're treated as huge private yachts owned by all the residents, and you live there full time, traveling the world:
Yeah, I've heard of that. A client I had was talking about them.
My wife wants to do that when we retire. It's super expensive, though, so I don't see it happening.
This guy was a billionaire. I don't think the cost was a factor.
Yeah. The residences cost between $2 million and $15 million. Even the low end of that would be too much of a stretch for me, even before considering fees. If I could afford that, I still wouldn't want to spend $2 million for a little studio apartment. For a billionaire, to throw that in as one of several homes, would be great. But even for a low-end millionaire, it's just not practical as an only home.
You'd need to charge people to come aboard. It would be similar to the cruise ship model. Cruise ships can come out ahead charging people something in the $20-$50 per person per day range, even with meals and entertainment included. And they have port charges and fuel charges. If you were just sitting out at sea not burning any more fuel than needed to keep bringing in supply barges, in theory, you could do it even more cheaply. It seems like it wouldn't be hard to convince a bachelor party or spring break crew to shell out $100 a pop for a crazy weekend on a floating city like that.
What I'm picturing would be a kind of resort -- about half-way between a mega-cruise-ship and Las Vegas. What Thiel is picturing, on the other hand, is a kind of libertarian utopia that would be a functioning city. I think the only way his works, though, is that the properties are owned by techbros and assorted millionaires and billionaires whose investment income keeps the place afloat.
Kind of off the subject, but have you read about how absurdly huge cruise ships are getting? Today's largest cruise ships are five times as large as the Titanic, in terms of gross tonnage. Between passengers and crew, they can have over 9,000 people aboard. They really are like small cities.
I didn't have hardly any direct interaction with this guy; his security team hired me and a few other guys to shadow them when he was in town for a meeting, and to provide him an escort to a private airfield (where his personal plane was) when it was over with. I heard him discussing it with one of his PAs.
