Brandyn Webb asks:
"If you were going to start a new life from scratch and could do it anywhere you wanted, where would you go and why?"
When I did that analysis, Panama scored well, at least on paper. Depending on the terms of The Seasteading Institute's "seazone" deal, French Polynesia may rise substantially in my rankings as well.
* Near the equator, tropical weather, but low hurricane risk.
* Cosmopolitan
* Socially tolerant (prostitution legal, drugs tolerated)
* Reasonable gun laws
* Low cost of living
* Hub of shipping, finance
* Large existing expat community
* Central to rest of south, central america
* Low cost flights to Panama City
* Relatively easy permanent resident visa ($80 K forest investment)
* Eastern time zone (easy to collaborate with people in the US)
* Beautiful natural settings
* At least 4 international fiber cables pass through
* Spanish is widely spoken in the US and elsewhere, and reasonably easy for English speakers to pick up.
* Reasonably low taxes (no taxes on foreign earned income)
* Large enough population to have some culture, but not so large to be unmanageable.
Downsides
* Spanish language
* Corruption
* Crime
* Poverty
* Excessive US influence (Panama canal means US has a strong military / economic interest in the country.)
What would be your answer? And why?
"If you were going to start a new life from scratch and could do it anywhere you wanted, where would you go and why?"
When I did that analysis, Panama scored well, at least on paper. Depending on the terms of The Seasteading Institute's "seazone" deal, French Polynesia may rise substantially in my rankings as well.
* Near the equator, tropical weather, but low hurricane risk.
* Cosmopolitan
* Socially tolerant (prostitution legal, drugs tolerated)
* Reasonable gun laws
* Low cost of living
* Hub of shipping, finance
* Large existing expat community
* Central to rest of south, central america
* Low cost flights to Panama City
* Relatively easy permanent resident visa ($80 K forest investment)
* Eastern time zone (easy to collaborate with people in the US)
* Beautiful natural settings
* At least 4 international fiber cables pass through
* Spanish is widely spoken in the US and elsewhere, and reasonably easy for English speakers to pick up.
* Reasonably low taxes (no taxes on foreign earned income)
* Large enough population to have some culture, but not so large to be unmanageable.
Downsides
* Spanish language
* Corruption
* Crime
* Poverty
* Excessive US influence (Panama canal means US has a strong military / economic interest in the country.)
What would be your answer? And why?