This is like Seasteading but for the less nautically inclined right? No mention of Fordlândia…
With the caveat that while sea-steading in principle intended to leave the mainland alone, charter cities aim to enclose an existing parcel of land and set up a rival polity within the country and give it preferential access to resources over its immediately adjoining neighbours
I’m honestly not gonna say that in principle if your aim is to do 21st century industrialisation within a liberal capitalist system in a Global South country - with all that that entails - that it isn’t gonna work, but advertising it as an unalloyed good without any recognition of the intense ambiguity of such a project is the most recklessly hubristic thing imaginable
It’s the polite form of seasteading, where you actually talk to the host country before setting up your haven for brothels and scams, instead of anchoring your flotilla of rafts just outside the EEZ and peppering the coast guard with gunfire when they approach.
extremely like it, esp with Patri Friedman involved
It’s like a combination of believing in magic and being able to afford a cast of really, really good personal magicians to keep you convinced
On the late 18th century US: “It was experimenting with a bizarre, Roman-era style of government called “democracy”
I mean this is functionally a kind of illiteracy that would make it impossible to get by in any political economic institution worth having
Effective Utopianism or: how I learned to stop worrying about the type of people attracted to low regulation environments with poor human right records and love
seasteadingcharter cities.JFC what a load of crap…
by far the greatest ongoing reductions in poverty and suffering are coming not from international aid projects, but from development,
A ton of international aid does target development, like this much-maligned Swedish aid project in Vietnam: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bãi_Bằng
And bringing up Singapore, that famous bastion of libertarianism.
On 1 May 1990, the then transportation unit of Singapore’s Public Works Department (PWD) instituted a quota limit to vehicles called the COE when rising affluence in the city-state catapulted land transport network usage and previous measure to curb vehicle ownership by simply increasing road taxes was ineffective in controlling vehicle population growth.
Public housing in Singapore is subsidised, built and managed by the Government of Singapore. […] As of 2020, 78.7% of Singapore residents live in public housing, down from a high of 88.0% in 2000.
Singapore also has excellent public transport.
From the article
the idea that charter cities could spur “governance competition"
Singapore is adjacent to Malaysia, and as far as I know there’s been limited influence from Singapore to Malaysia (or Indonesia, for that matter) with regards to governance. PArtly this is because most Malays view Singapore as full of weird-ass Chinese, and they way they go about their business has no bearing on Malaysia. Partly it’s because Singapore doesn’t want a bunch of undesirable Malays moving there and mooching off their success.
For example, Prospera is a charter city that’s currently operating within a special economic zone in Honduras. […] Alongside benefits for areas like finance and biotech, Próspera’s legal platform enables architects to design modern, eco-friendly buildings connected by parks and walking paths, in a way that wouldn’t be possible under the zoning rules of most American cities.
I dunno zip about Honduran zoning rules, but are these kind of buildings also impossible under the local rules there? It’s weird that they’re comparing a charter city in one country with the laws of another.
[250 years ago, the US] was experimenting with a bizarre, Roman-era style of government called “democracy”, and nobody knew if it would really work.
WTF dude, Rome was the original “a Republic, not a Democracy”.
A century from now, maybe the idea that promoting governance competition leads to faster growth and greater liberty, will seem just as obvious as the idea that an elected president usually provides better leadership than a dictator or a king.
Well, when Augustus took power and forged a new political system from the ruins of the Roman Republic, he and his system ushered in an unprecedented 200+ years of peace and prosperity. Gibbon stated it was the literal best time to be alive, up until then.
[…] learn the history of development superstars like Dubai and Shenzhen.
Wait, I thought dictatorships and kings were bad? But these cities are part of those. Make up your mind!
I didn’t bother reading the comments to see if anyone mentioned the above. Sorry not sorry.
Is this going to be taken over by bears?
Only if the bears abide by the NAP.
Patri Friedman and Peter Thiel are involved in Prospera, because of course they are
When he posted the finished video on youtube yesterday, there were some quite critical comments on youtube, the EA forum and even lesswrong. Unfortunately they got little to no upvotes while the video itself got enough karma to still be on the frontpage on both forums.
you should make this a standalone followup post
I’m not that good at sneering. ‘EA is when you make Fordlândia’? Idk, you found the original post and you’re much better at it, it’s better if you do it.
