Off On A Sunday Tangent: Seasteading, Switching Governments, and Boats

I’m a big fan of Seasteading. I think it’s a phenomenal idea and I’ve been following it for a while now. In fact, I’d be going to the First Annual Seasteading Conference on October 10th if I didn’t live on the east coast. It’s starting to take off. Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, recently donated $500,000 dollars to the Seasteading Institute, so hopefully, they’re really going to start making an impact. What sort of impact? Well…

The high cost of switching governments is what gives the state it’s power to do bad things. If you decrease that cost, governments will be more swayed by the market. To put it more simply, let’s say everyone lived in RVs, spoke the same language, and crossing the border was easy. Then let’s say the US government starts a spying program on all it’s citizens, and taxes them an extra 10% of their income to pay for it. The next day, a huge number of US citizens would leave for Mexico and Canada.

When the cost of “switching governments” is low (much like when the cost of switching companies, like cell phone providers, auto insurance, etc is low), then governments could never get away with the nonsense they do now. The market would keep them in check. Seasteading can help in that regard since it creates floating mini-governments at sea, and you can unhook and leave if you’re unhappy with that particular floating city. Because of that competition and the ease of leaving, the governments that make the most amount of people happy will thrive. Other floating cities will embrace the methods that are attracting the most people, and all the floating cities will soon be quite efficient and well-run.

The hope is that those methods that evolved at sea via the free market will spill over onto the traditional land-based governments. Even if they don’t, eventually (over years) so many people will move to sea because of the better quality of life, that the land governments will have to follow suit.

What does all this have to do with RideLust?
Boats.

I’m looking forward to living at sea one day, but I really love cars and motorcycles and high-speed movement. I’ll miss those, so I need to find a nautical replacement. Sailboats are fantastic, you get to wear a captains hat and pretend you’re a pirate, but really, I need speed. I need powerboats.

The thing is, I don’t know jack about boats. This is where I need you, RideLust-ers. Give me some quality boat info in the comments. Do my job for me. Please.

Remember, the First Annual Seasteading Conference is happening October 10th. Be there or be square.

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NJ to Philadelphia Bridge Toll Raised to 4 Dollars

This past Sunday, the Delaware River Port Authority raised the toll to cross all the major bridges connecting Philadelphia and NJ: The Walt Whitman, Ben Franklin, Betsy Ross and Commodore Barry. And in 2 short years, they plan on raising it to $5 dollars. This hits me pretty hard, since I use the Betsy Ross Bridge daily.

I’ve talked about this problem before, and the solution is obvious to me: Privatize the bridges.

The DRPA (Delaware River Port Authority) is over a billion dollars in debt, and they say they need the extra income to pay down that debt. One of the reasons stated for the increase is that less people are using the bridge, so they need more money. Stop and think about that for a second. What if this were a private business? If less people are using your product or service, do you raise the price?

The poor management of the DRPA caused the billion in debt, and now they’re passing it off to the good citizens of the Philadelphia and NJ area. If these bridges were built only a few years ago, we wouldn’t have these absurd tolls, there would be a scaled toll system, where higher tolls are paid during busy traffic hours and lower tolls are paid during off hours. That’s too complicated for a government run enterprise though.

The time is now, DRPA can still sell off these bridges piecemeal. They could sell one of the bridges to a private firm and use that revenue to pay down debt. It’d be a step in the right direction.

Call your local representatives people.

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National Speed Limit Part II: Return of the Ridiculous Law

In 1995, Ralph Nader said “history will never forgive Congress for this assault on the sanctity of human life.” Why? Because Congress had just repealed the 55 mile per hour speed limit. In the years following the repeal, 33 states raised their speed limits, and the average fatality rate actually fell in those states. Meanwhile, Americans have saved some 200 million manhours in terms of less time spent on the road. The net economic benefit of that being between $2 and $3 billion a year.

So what have we learned? Time is a resource more precious than any other, and Ralph Nader is a lunatic zombie with no understanding of real economics.

Or have we learned anything at all? George W is the new Nixon, Iraq is the new Vietnam, and very expensive oil is the new kinda expensive oil. And just like the 1970s, national speed limits are back on the American brain. To help out the problem of expensive gas, senator John Warner (R-VA) wants a national speed limit, and he’s not the only one. Jackie Speier (D-CA) earlier this month introduced a bill that would cap highway speed limits at 60 mph. It’s currently in bureaucratic limbo just outside the House Committee on Transportation.

An interesting side note, Senator John Warner was married to Elizabeth Taylor at one point.

In an interview with TIME, John Warner talked about the 55 mph limit and said he’s trying to help “the many millions and millions [of Americans] of limited means, sitting around their kitchen table trying to figure out how to make ends meet…Maybe some guy’s got a better idea, but I haven’t seen it.”

Well, Johnny, open your eyes:

In an earlier article, The National Speed Limit is a Tool for Nazi Thugs, I wrote about the air of fear that the national speed limit created, and how speed limits clearly don’t make us safer, and don’t help us economically. Here are the major points:

First of all, more than 80% of all drivers ignore speed limits, which creates this unintended consequence of universal police fear, where motorists are more afraid of their police than they are of getting into an accident. That’s not good for anyone. Secondly, they don’t help out the economy; the money wasted in lost time greatly outweighs any potential benefit. And thirdly, they’re not safe; they just don’t prevent accidents, and in fact, they make them worse. All the data out there is crystal clear on this fact.

Look at the German Autobahn, which has no speed limits at all in certain areas. Fatalities per mile of road there are almost 30% lower than they are on the US interstate. We need to learn. Politicians need to learn. Speed limits are not the answer.

But Jackie Speier and John Warner still think they are; in fact, John Warner thinks he’s helping people. In the TIME article, he said “I’m just sensitive to people’s pain. Who’s got the courage to do something like this?”

Courage? To say something completely contrary to the facts and get behind an outdated, dangerous law that will waste billions of dollars and have an actual negative impact on peoples lives…maybe kill people? I guess you have that kind of courage, Mr. Warner.

Disagree? Just see what happens when a bunch of students decide to obey the speed limit as a form of civil disobedience:

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