Dropping out of the USA

[Tim May]

At 7:19 PM +0100 7/6/01, Ken Brown wrote:
>"A. Melon" wrote:
...
>>  'political crimes', it seems the best options are to simply leave the
>>  country altogether or forget about the personal freedoms granted by the
>>  constitution.
>
>>  So my question is: where to go?
>

>>  How does one
>>  'drop out' of the US and keep all the good things one has become
>>  accustomed to?
>
>Maybe by being very rich and in effect living in a fortress?
>
>Or by making do with less money.

There seem to be two basic approaches:

1. Obscurity. Don't rock the boat. Hide assets (judgement-proofing). 
Don't become a visible target.

2. Active Defense. Hire lawyers. Protect assets (judgement-proofing).

I believe the "living in a fortress" solution falls into the second category.

However, it's not very effective. Lawsuits cross property lines very 
easily...ask Dennis Rodman, Donald Trump, etc. Likewise, Waco showed 
that if law enforcement decides to make an example out of someone or 
some group (over fairly trivial charges, never even really proved), 
even a fortress compound will not help. In fact, any such fortress 
brings in more firepower, and charges of "barricading."

The first approach is favored by some. It has drawbacks.

Only "A. Melon" knows what his or her situation is, so advice is not possible.

I will say that there is no country out there that seems to be beyond 
the reach of U.S. law enforcement, pace the points we discuss so 
often about drug warriors, freezing of accounts, extradition, etc. 
Even Yugoslavia has just bowed to U.S. financing pressures (sending 
Milosevic to the Hague for a show trial).

While I've never been to Anguilla, any hope that it is some kind of 
libertarian paradise has always been nonsensical. (I said this half a 
dozen years ago, of course, upon hearing the list of banned items, 
including "Playboy," and about the rule by the "seven families.")

I used to live near Monaco as a kid, and have been back a couple of 
times. A police state, in the sense that residents are surveilled by 
cameras mounted in public places. What Stephenson would call a 
"burbclave," except heavily urbanized. The residents don't mind being 
taped and scrutinized--cuts way down on street crime. But not a place 
for one of a dissident outlook. Residency (and tax advantages) does 
not come easy, and people like us need not apply.

And so it goes. I have no plans to leave.


--Tim May




-- 
Timothy C. May         tcmay at got.net        Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go
Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns