ZadekpediaPatri Friedman is co-founder of the Seasteading Institute, an organization promoting the building of dwellings offshore in the ocean, outside the territorial limits of any country, and later founded Pronomos Capital, a venture fund pursuing charter cities. He appeared twice on The Bob Zadek Show, first in 2009 to discuss seasteading and again in 2022 to discuss what he described as a transition from opposition to states toward partnership with them.
On the show
2 appearances, 2009–2022.
- 2009-09-12 · Seasteading · 59:59 — Autonomous floating micro-nations and competitive governance.
- 2022-09-26 · Patri Friedman’s Plan to Accelerate the Free Cities of the Future · 52:37 — Seasteading and land-based charter cities.
Seasteading and the exit principle
Friedman described seasteading as homesteading the high seas: pioneers once headed west to homestead new open land, but now every bit of land has already been claimed by some government, so Friedman and the Seasteading Institute want to open the oceans as the next frontier for human advancement Seasteading (2009). He characterized government as an industry with just a few large firms—the current 150 countries or so—that are too big to innovate, and said the goal is to let people start lots of small countries that will be more experimental, enabling government startups that test what works instead of arguing about it.
Bob Zadek introduced Friedman as one of the co-founders of the Seasteading Institute and as representing the organization, and asked whether seasteading presupposed the surrender of US citizenship. Friedman said the answers differ at short, medium, and long-range time scales: in the short term people would keep their US citizenship and could exclude the first $90,000 in income earned abroad from US tax; in the medium term wealthier participants would acquire economic citizenships by paying a fee or making an investment in a country; and in the very long term, 40 or 50 years out, the seasteads would be big enough to issue their own passports recognized by other countries and people could give up their citizenships Seasteading (2009). Friedman said US tax law had recently changed from a regime in which the IRS claimed the right to keep taxing wealthy former citizens for 10 years after they gave up citizenship to a one-time exit tax in which they pay capital gains tax as if they had sold all of their things, which he said “strangely for US tax policy, actually kind of makes sense” Seasteading (2009).
Friedman said his personal political passion is for free markets and free countries, but that he loved that seasteading would work even if libertarianism turned out to be wrong, because making it easier for people to try out different political systems would improve the world regardless of whether his own views were correct. In the second episode, Zadek observed that more than a decade had passed since Friedman co-founded the Seasteading Institute, and that Governors DeSantis and Newsom were trying to induce each other’s citizens to move—“Competing for citizens”—evidence, in Zadek’s view, that Friedman was onto something Patri Friedman’s Plan to Accelerate the Free Cities of the Future (2022).
From opposition to partnership
Friedman said he wanted to make venture-backed for-profit startup city-states his long-term mission, starting fully sovereign private city-states, though even that would be done in partnership with countries, with small countries sharing their sovereignty Patri Friedman’s Plan to Accelerate the Free Cities of the Future (2022). He said he had been working on the project for over 20 years and believed that an effectively sovereign startup city-state, and possibly a recognized one, was less than 10 to 15 years away. He described the movement as having grown up: it used to be in opposition to states, but at the then-current stage it was about working with friendly states, with the states bringing sovereignty and his team bringing the ability to create economic growth and jobs.
At Pronomos Capital, Friedman said, there is no starter kit—though he said there probably should be—because he and his partners had a difficult pandemic, and they planned to become more hands-on as they grew their funds and hired staff Patri Friedman’s Plan to Accelerate the Free Cities of the Future (2022). He named three main audiences: governments, founders, and investors. Projects are done in close partnership with a government as a public-private partnership for mutual benefit; a major shortage is proven entrepreneurs ready to start a city; and the checks Pronomos writes at the early stage range from $100,000 to a million, before the tens of millions needed for initial build-outs. Asked about land and sovereignty, he said the core asset investors buy is land, plus infrastructure and buildings, along with the operating company’s agreement with the government. Depending on the country, land may be leased from a government that does not sell land, bought privately on public markets as in Honduras, or contributed by a government that owns much land and wants to promote the project.
Across episodes
The topic appears in two episodes, thirteen years apart: the 2009 Seasteading interview and the 2022 interview about Pronomos Capital and charter cities. What changed between the earlier and later treatment is the posture toward existing states—from seasteading in international waters outside any country’s territorial limits Seasteading (2009) to public-private partnerships with willing governments sharing sovereignty under Pronomos Capital Patri Friedman’s Plan to Accelerate the Free Cities of the Future (2022)—a change Friedman himself narrates, saying he did present himself as a radical revolutionary 15 years earlier but has grown up as the movement has. The mechanism of exit persists in both: Friedman says competition from other countries will force the United States to be a better place to live.