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posted by martyb on Tuesday February 06 2018, @11:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the more-money-than-sense dept.

The NYT reports that a loosely knit group of crypto-currency multi-million/billionaires have chosen Puerto Rico to set up shop -- several reasons are given including a tax haven for US citizens and low real estate prices since the hurricane Maria destruction last year. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/technology/cryptocurrency-puerto-rico.html

Dozens of entrepreneurs, made newly wealthy by blockchain and cryptocurrencies, are heading en masse to Puerto Rico this winter. They are selling their homes and cars in California and establishing residency on the Caribbean island in hopes of avoiding what they see as onerous state and federal taxes on their growing fortunes, some of which now reach into the billions of dollars.

And these men — because they are almost exclusively men — have a plan for what to do with the wealth: They want to build a crypto utopia, a new city where the money is virtual and the contracts are all public, to show the rest of the world what a crypto future could look like. Blockchain, a digital ledger that forms the basis of virtual currencies, has the potential to reinvent society — and the Puertopians want to prove it.

For more than a year, the entrepreneurs had been searching for the best location. After Hurricane Maria decimated Puerto Rico's infrastructure in September and the price of cryptocurrencies began to soar, they saw an opportunity and felt a sense of urgency.

[...] The movement is alarming an earlier generation of Puerto Rico tax expats like the hedge fund manager Robb Rill, who runs a social group for those taking advantage of the tax incentives.

"They call me up saying they're going to buy 250,000 acres so they can incorporate their own city, literally start a city in Puerto Rico to have their own crypto world," said Mr. Rill, who moved to the island in 2013. "I can't engage in that."
 

I suggest that the SN posters who write, "everything should be organized by contracts, not government" please buy a one-way ticket to PR now! And then see if you can actually make it work. [With limited electricity and thus limited internet, they may not pester the rest of us so often.]


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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:20PM (15 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:20PM (#633820) Homepage Journal

    You believe pay should be based on need rather than market value of the work performed? Idiotic thinking like that is what has created the race to claim the most oppression among the regressive left in the US. It was also spelled out exactly how and why it destroys any nation it infects decades ago by Ayn Rand. But I expect you'll get all triggered by seeing her name and dismiss that without actually thinking about it.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:31PM (7 children)

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:31PM (#633827) Journal

    race to claim the most oppression

    Wow, hyperbole much?

    Anyway, it seems you'd prefer a race to the bottom instead. Note that the only winners in such a race are bottom-feeders.

    Ayn Rand. But I expect you'll get all triggered by seeing her name and dismiss that without actually thinking

    That's kind of rich, seeing as how you just pre-emptively dismissed any counter argument in that very sentence.

    FWIW, Ayn Rand was a delusional fantasist hypocrite with incredibly simplistic ideas about society and economics, and her work is rightly ignored.

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:50PM (6 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:50PM (#633838) Homepage Journal

      You think that's hyperbole? Have you not been paying attention for the past twenty years? There were actually feminist groups trying to silence or kick white women out for being too privileged just in the past year.

      FWIW, Ayn Rand was a delusional fantasist hypocrite with incredibly simplistic ideas about society and economics that I've never read...

      FTFY.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:12PM (4 children)

        by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:12PM (#633853) Journal

        Ummm...? Because some crazy people don't understand feminism, paying a living wage is oppression. You might have to walk me through that one.

        And I can only assume you think I haven't read any Rand because if I had, then it's shining logic would have instantly converted me to your viewpoint. Haha. It's the most tedious, simplistic, self-important nonsense I've ever waded through. The arguments are fatuous, the characters two-dimensional and the strawmen are piled up like kindling. If she is the best argument you have, give up now.

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:24PM (2 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:24PM (#633861) Homepage Journal

          Sigh. Claiming oppression is claiming need. Can you figure it out from there or do I really have to type it all out?

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:34PM

            by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:34PM (#633872) Journal

            Well yeah. If someone is oppressed, then they have a need. A need to not be oppressed. What's your point?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:47PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:47PM (#633879)

            I don't get the oppression - need part, please explain.

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @07:22PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @07:22PM (#634048)

          "The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged are two books you can give a 15-year-old that will change his life forever. One will draw him into a fantasy world where people who are losers in real life can become heroic captains engaged in a timeless, righteous struggle against evil. The other is about orcs". - Source Unknown

          No Comment.

      • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday February 07 2018, @02:22AM

        by NotSanguine (285) <NotSanguineNO@SPAMSoylentNews.Org> on Wednesday February 07 2018, @02:22AM (#634258) Homepage Journal

        I have read Ayn Rand.

        And she actually writes tolerably well. The issue comes in with the *content* of her writing. She talks out of her ass and it smells that way too.

        The Howard Roark [wikipedia.org] character is a sociopathic narcissist that Rand attempts to raise up as a hero. It's pretty pathetic actually.

        Your argument would work better if those around you were all illiterate. Unfortunately for you, some are not.

        --
        No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:48PM (6 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:48PM (#633836)

    In 1976 Ayn Rand enrolled in Social Security and Medicare.

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    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:52PM (5 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:52PM (#633841) Homepage Journal

      Aren't you one of those folks who'll scream to the top of their lungs that Social Security and Medicare are not entitlements but things you've paid into and are simply getting your returns from? Me, I think they're ponzi schemes but that doesn't excuse you from making your arguments jive with each other.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:15PM (4 children)

        by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:15PM (#633856) Journal

        If a person eats pork, I have no problem with that. I happen to eat pork myself, from time to time.

        If a person spends the best part of his life telling other people that eating pork is evil, that eating pork will destroy society, that pork-eaters are the enemy within... and then goes on an all-pork diet WHILE STILL DECRYING THE EVILS OF PORK TO ANYONE STUPID ENOUGH TO LISTEN... that's when I have a problem.

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:26PM (3 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:26PM (#633862) Homepage Journal

          Flawed analogy. Rand was forced to pay into those programs whether she liked it or not just like everyone else. Explain to me how getting her own back in any way negates anything she ever said.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 4, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:40PM

            by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:40PM (#633875) Journal

            Because by her own loudly-opined standards1, being reliant on welfare makes her a worthless, useless drain on society and a failure of a human being who should just do the world a favour by quietly starving to death. Why should anyone listen to the rantings of a failure?

            1Not mine, hers.

          • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:49PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:49PM (#633881)

            So taxes aren't theft, we are getting the value we pay for. Thanks for clearing that up.

            • (Score: 2) by dry on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:07AM

              by dry (223) on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:07AM (#634315) Journal

              You're not living in a wealthy society with quite a few freedoms and the ability to raise yourself up? You always have the option of getting dropped off somewhere on the Alaskan Highway, be self-sufficient and never pay taxes.