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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.]
(Score: 4, Informative) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:31PM (7 children)
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.
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)
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.
FTFY.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday February 06 2018, @03:12PM (4 children)
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)
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
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
I don't get the oppression - need part, please explain.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @07:22PM
No Comment.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday February 07 2018, @02:22AM
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