Say the best way to go is to become a perpetual tourist. That is you don't have US citzenship and thus are not subject to it's taxes and other nosy laws. [Not that other government's don't have nosier laws]. Anyway

1. If you don't have US citzenship, how do you get a passport? (Buy it on sale from the Czech republic or what?)

This is unnecessary. Hang on to that US Passport! You may want a backup for some countries (a Canadian one is a good compliment and doesn't stretch linguistic plausibility; just say 'eh' a lot at the end of sentences. They're real good in a number of sticky situations where one might wish to put their US passport in a blender.) The US tax laws are quite lenient both legally and in terms of enforcement vis-a-vis US citizens living abroad. Consult a tax specialist or attorney for specific advice, but while living in Taiwan I knew *very* few Americans who felt they needed to file.

2. Where do you live? I mean I love to travel but after 3 or 4 weeks of it I'm ready to settle down and hibernate for a long while. [Especially now with a wife and 2 sons, I'd last about 2 days traveling :-)] Somewhere were I don't have to get thrown in jail for thinking the wrong thoughts. [Which given the nature of this list most of us do, except of course our NSA monitors :-)]

The Permanent Tourist idea isn't that you keep moving around, but that you settle down in a foreign country without becoming a permanent resident there (and subject to THEIR tax laws). You perform work that is paid for outside of that country, and have the funds remitted into your host country. For all intents and purposes you are a tourist drawing funds from abroad. Note that since you are, in fact, earning the money (despite your tourist visa) in your host country, you may be violating both immigration and tax laws in that country, but it's unlikely they'll do or say anything; note, however, I was deported from Taiwan because I made the mistake of working physically in a law firm there (not very common but I was turned in by an angry ex-girlfriend). Also note that it could well be within the scope of US legislation to remove existing protection for funds apparently earned from within the US, particularly if they are received from US entities. This is currently beyond the pale of cost-benefit for the IRS, because even 'hundreds of thousands' of difficult-to-enforce hard cases aren't worth the trouble. Yet.

3. Are the TELECOM connections there yet? I saw this weeks Economist and it looks promising but last time I was in Europe some of my phone connections were less than perfect. [Even parts of the US leave something to be desired]. I personally need a good phone line (especially if I'm hundreds of miles from my customer), and a minimum of 56kbaud link for my computer.

It depends. In Europe, I've heard moderately good things about EUnet. Even in rapidly industrializing Asia, good luck getting a phone in a reasonable period of time. In Taiwan it took three months, cost about $800 for the setup and the connection was poor. One of my clients was the Siemen's subsidiary there, the government was rapidly moving to digital switches purchased from them. As far as the net goes, good luck. In a great number of otherwise moderately pleasant countries for the PT, the telecom situation is horrendous (but often rapidly improving.) In Australia for instance, I hear tell that it is profoundly difficult in most places to get a non-government net connection. Just got a tip for one in Brisbane, but the situation remains pretty grim. In the rapidly industrializing Asian countries, if you can't lay a little guanxi or maybe a hong bao on the right folks, bag it. (Relationship or a bribe). I'm curious what the situation is in Japan these days, Mr. Woodhead?

4. Customer interaction. This is a problem, if you work on computer systems that are unique or program custom software for these systems, customer interaction is very important ( and in other areas I'm sure). Yes email, video conferencing (expensive!) help but you either need to be there or have very good VR (which I have yet to see, this doesn't mean much as I haven't seen bad VR yet either).

While working with various trading companies in Asia, I learned the joy of sleeplessnes, working to shift my schedule to match my target customers (for a while, mostly in South America). And this was just to sell a highly desirable *product* requiring no technical support other than a call to the neighborhood 14-year-old (Nintendo knock-offs, if you must know.) Also, while working on the AIX 3.1, I recall one series of days when I was coordinating closely with a programmer in Japan; after despairing of the phone tag, I just mapped my schedule to his so we could interact as necessary.

The one plus is that I believe there is still time (5-10) years before the costs outweigh the benifits of living in the US and thus there is time to plan things like what country to live in, which bank to use in the channel isles and let technological advance solve some of the bandwidth problems.

Karl Waldman

BTW The above shouldn't imply I disagree with Ducan's premise. In fact I

Again, as a former attempted PT myself, I don't disagree with the overall desirability of Duncan's proposal, I just doubt it's going to take the government by storm. As I side note, I was talking to a friend of mine who just got a PhD from the same linguistics program I was involved with (UT), and he's having a rough time looking for work -- America and Americans, in general, are looking inward more than ever, and linguistics departments are shutting down all over the country. I think this bodes poorly for a mass-action PT movement.

have enjoyed his posts and agree with most of what he says, so I guess I should shut up and buy some DUCAN (or whatever) on HEX.

P.S. Ducan please post your talk after you get back from London. I will transfer 1000 thornes to your HEX account (if you have one)

I'm curious what the heck you're talking about here. This is probably some Extropians thing, right? -- ---------------- /\ Douglas Barnes cman@illuminati.io.com / \ Chief Wizard (512) 448-8950 (d), 447-7866 (v) / () \ Illuminati Online metaverse.io.com 7777 /______\