this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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I've been reading a little about this concept and can't see how it would work in reality. Sure, the Feds could "set aside" some land for one of these assholes to set up a new city. But that area would still be under the concurrent jurisdiction of a state and county. And not even the Feds can exempt a city from a state's regulatory environment. In fact most of the things these billionaires are trying to get away from (labor laws, building codes, etc) are state regulations in the first place.
Frankly no billionaire is going to want to live in the middle of South Dakota, no matter how "free" it supposedly is.
Everyone seems to forget a bunch of tech bros bought almost $1B worth of land in Solano County CA with the stated goal of building a new city. It made national headlines for a bit as the buyer was initially a mystery and it’s near Travis Air Force base so there was concern it was foreign actors.
Rich people trying to buy land for their own slice of paradise goes way back. Solano County is recent history, young squire. I go back to the Free State project from 2001, same song and dance. Or the non-government wet dream of Sealand off the coast of England in 1987, ditto. And if one wants to go even more old school than that, look at the rich Confederate plantation owners that went to Brazil after the CSA fell in 1865. You can even go down to the town of Americana every year and celebrate the Confederacy! These fuckers wanted to deny that they lost so badly that they created a false reality in Brazil.