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Comment by erikpukinskis | Hacker News Reader

Except a) the federal government actually doesn’t really interfere much with governance at all, and b) floating on seawater makes almost everything 10x harder.

Which means seasteading is pointless unless you are doing something the federal government really doesn’t like.

90% of problematic regulations are city rules, and another 9% are county level, which means most people can just move to a different city and be completely free to experiment with whatever governance they want, and another 9% will need to switch counties, but only 1% at most need to be on a boat. And frankly many of those are actually anti-social people who aren’t experimenting with governance, they’re incompatible with it.

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>Except a) the federal government actually doesn’t really interfere much with governance at all

You’re not serious are you.

> >Except a) the federal government actually doesn’t really interfere much with governance at all

>You’re not serious are you.

The OP was certainly underestimating the influence the US federal government (and federal governments around the world) have on their constituent states, but certainly in the USA, Canada, Australia, etc., subnational and local governments have considerable power which they consistently fail to use in an innovative way. Most subnational entities simply replicate the institutions of their national or sibling polities.

How long do those subnational/local governments keep those powers if they use them in a too "innovative" way?

Well in most federations, until there’s a constitutional change.

> ...subnational and local governments have considerable power which they consistently fail to use in an innovative way.

Yep, tell that to my old sheriff who had the feds all over his ass for messing with the illegal immigrants. And a federal indictment. And a presidential pardon.

Ah, good 'ol Sheriff Joe...

I am. If there’s a form of governance you’d like to experiment with which you can’t legally do in, say, Montana, I would be very interested to hear about it. I would be happy to be proven wrong on this subject.

The original concept by the founding fathers was that the US would have countless "laboratories of democracy" and thus what you say echoes the original intent.

However, federal law has grown, and state law and even local law has all become highly standardized. In practice there's very little distinction between regions. America is just one big "stroad."

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2014/01/dangerous-str...

I've noticed this in a sense of town "character". I've lived in New York State, Vermont, and now Colorado, and I can't say there's much of a difference between suburbs. You'd think that three different states would have their own "feel", but for the most part they all seem the same to me. Our towns have no sense of identity.

I love you.

(Edit, because my first reaction may appear creepy by itself. Your comment reads like that speech in `Good Will Hunting` on why he doesn't want to work for the NSA. Or anything written by Aaron Sorkin)

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