extreme-luxury

Coming Soon: Your Own Sovereign Nation

cityfile · 05/28/08 02:22PM

So you've got the G-V and the Maybach. You own an estate in the Hamptons, a co-op on Fifth, and a ski house in Aspen. What could possibly be missing? Your own country, of course! Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, the gazillionaire co-founder of PayPal who now runs the hedge fund Clarium Capital, recentl invested in the Seasteading Institute, an organization dedicated to "creating experimental ocean communities with diverse social, political, and legal systems." Yes, the group's mission is to permit billionaire moguls like Thiel to establish their own sovereign man-made islands. (Presumably they'll be a bit more attractive than the oil platform that you see to the right.) Why not just, say, buy an regular ol' island in the tropics, you ask?