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<title><![CDATA[Comments for entry "When Companies Become Countries" at Dilbert.com Blog]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/771]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Regular thoughts and updates from Dilbert.com]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from HermesBags]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1728226]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Gucci Bags goal is to make all the products to fine to the Italy , impeccable. choose fashionable life . Let us feel the spring soft romantic! First of all,our products have Gucci Handbags , Gucci Bags , Gucci Outlet . cheap price,we store the Gucci handbag good quality,durable. Welcome to our shop to buy http://www.guccibestsellers.com/.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1728226]]></guid>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from HermesBags]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1728203]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[
Fendi Bags goal is to make all the products to fine to the Italy , impeccable. Image noble, elegant . Let us feel the spring soft romantic! First of all,our products have Fendi Handbags , Fendi Bags , Fendi Shoes , Fendi Outlet , Fendi Sunglasses . cheap price,we store the Fendi handbag good quality,durable. Welcome to our shop to buy http://www.fendibagsonline.com/.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from HermesBags]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1728169]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Louis Vuitton goal is to make all the products to fine to the France , impeccable. Legend, classic, noble perceived value. Let us feel the spring soft romantic! First of all,our products have Louis Vuitton Handbags , Louis Vuitton Handbags Outlet. Louis Vuitton Handbags Online,cheap price,we store the Louis Vuitton Purchase good quality,durable. Welcome to our shop to buy http://www.louisvuittonhandbagonline.com/. 
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<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from HermesBags]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1728140]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Coach Bags goal is to make all the products to fine to the China , impeccable . The feeling of decorous and free from vulgarity . Let us feel the spring soft romantic! First of all,our products have Coach Outlet , Coach Bags . Coach Online Outlet Store ,cheap price,we store the Coach Store good quality,durable. Welcome to our shop to buy http://www.coachbestsellers.com/. 
]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from HermesBags]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1728111]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Hermes 's goal is to make all the products to fine to the United States,impeccable. As Hermes spring summer 2010advertising films,but also beautiful wonderland. Let us feel the spring soft romantic! First of all,our products have Hermes Birkin , Hermes Kelly , Hermes bag. Hermes online sales,cheap price,we store the Hermes handbag good quality,durable. Welcome to our shop to buy http://www.hermesbagshopping.com/. 
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<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from SondraGail]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1706032]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[May I recommend Friday by Robert A Heinlein?]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TuePMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1706032]]></guid>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from davidlap]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1669760]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[I think there is potential for a VPC (virtual private country) where you could have dual citizenship.  You could remain a citizen of a country based on the geography of where you live.  You would pay taxes for specific services that are purely based on geography (roads for example) but you could then be a citizen of a virtual country where you would get all of your non-geographical based services.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[FriPMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from LowSpender]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1658286]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[I think this would work as long as profits were constantly used to buy up real estate of other countries to gradually take over lands by voluntary conquest, freeing the residents from a system that steals money from them and only gives them a 1 in x Million vote in how it's spent. I'd like for Apple, Amazon, Google and other entrepreneurial companies to start this, buying up of vast tracts of land to create theme park style societies where they get first exposure to new technology and an intelligent integration with cheaper upgrades, of future products. A city close to Amazon's huge warehouses might be a start. I envision something like Walt Disney's Epcot City that never got finished. A voluntary system is the goal, as opposed to the violently-funded coercive taxation that government uses.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ThuAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Professor59]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1654692]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[It is adorable of you to think that all of a company/country's profits will go right back into public services.  Nobody gives anything away.  People go into business to make money, and no amount is enough.  Calling itself a country won't change a thing.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[WedPMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from 3dBdown]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1654683]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Let us not forget the VOC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from HiJester]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1652033]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Scott, I think you missed some relevant issues. 

First: The corporate seasteading should be safe, which means prevented from military or terroristic attack - it would be an easy target for every assault ordered by their competition or country state. How do you imagine protecting a floating islands or sea platform - with a power shield like in Star Wars movie? The only case of relatively safe seasteading would be analogs of actual tax paradises like Monaco or Lichtenstein in Europe, or Dutch Antiles, Caymain Islands etc. But they play for every business or government with money - so their every &quot;customer&quot; is involved in protecting them. The situation with corporate state would be quite different - do you think, that everyone in the world loves iPhone so much to protect Apple state? Well, I think at least Steve Ballmer doesn't ;)

Second: Corporations desperately need country states with their citizens. Country states are markets, they provide natural resources, they have armies to deploy with corporate products, hospital to equip, they need fuels to burn and roads to drive. And they governments with politicians to corrupt. I've read a comment, that it makes more sense to buy a whole country or just naturally protected area (i. e. Lichtenstein or Andorra) and to make it's own corporate state - and I think it's more realistic situation. Unfortunately...
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<pubDate><![CDATA[WedAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from roccoernest]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1647436]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[&quot;Countries are mostly defined by physical borders. You can live outside a country and still be a citizen of it, but that's the exception, and even then, you were probably born there. But why stick to that outmoded idea in this age of information? What about a system where countries were defined by choice? Suppose you could choose to be German, or Chinese, or whatever, without the bother of actually moving there. In effect, you could vote for which system of government you prefered by becoming a citizen of the country that practices it.&quot;

- This is brilliant. Scott - please address!

In essense, this is what humankind evolved from. We started with tribes/families: you were born into it, and were part of it as long as you stayed in a physical boundery and paid ownership fees (tributes) to the local boss. It worked until...

Religion: then you were born into it or (sometimes) had a declaring ceremony when you became a functional adult. Everybody in a specific area was in it, and you were as well even if you left the area. A good religious person still sent fees (tithes) back to the boss (pope) far away. There were some benefits outside the area: other religious folks of your sect trusted you more, you get married more often, had business partners. It functioned as a reputation metric, dating service, and spiritual bodyguard service with maybe childcare and heath services. Until...

Governments: also born into it, and had all of the above even if you left. 

Now we have trade unions, professional unions, guilds, gamer clans, etc. Why not extend this out? Why can't I not ship all the countries online and pick the ones with the best taxes, human rights, health care, and then simply 'join' - pay them my taxes and get the benefits. In return they actually have a REASON to change their laws to stay competitive.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TuePMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from Kingfisher]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1647091]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Besides, isn't Machiavelli's 'Il principio' required reading for CEOs nowadays?]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TuePMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from huitzilipoztly]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1646724]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[This will not happen any time soon, or I should say.... As long as we have wonderful almost tax free, the city of Zog, where some of the biggest companies of the U.S. are calling this place &quot;international headquarters&quot; with not much than a receptionist and a small lobby to answer any calls (got to cover your ass in the loophole), companies already avoid all the pros mentioned by this article. Some companies are so confident of their loophole that have just a P.O. box in this remote, quiet, little known town in the Swiss alps. Forget the Cayman Islands that carries the stigma of drug money being laundered, but a picturesque town in the Swiss Alps...now that brings class to a distasteful technique used by the companies that will have an office building with hundreds of office workers, managers, executives and the C.E.O.  spend every work day in Texas and call that their Northamerican operation and a P.O. box in Zog as their international headquarters.]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from MisterBeefhead]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1646678]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Again and again you minimize the evil of a dictatorship that kills more people than anybody.  The lack of privacy you experience on facebook is in no way comparable to living under a dictatorship. And anybody who thinks the Chinese state is an example of good government never bought their baby formula.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TuePMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from harrykrak]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1645538]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[This is what you get when you turn oil drilling over to a private company with &quot;no red tape&quot;. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_Alpha

I can live with red tape. The implication of that sentence is that I will at least, or maybe at most, be alive.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TueAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from fledder]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1645311]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Companies already have almost complete freedom in choosing the places and employees that cost the least and profit the most, whilst not having to pay the overhead that comes from a functional society. Creating their own country will only add all those costs. 

Just like with your idea of millionaires creating their own society at sea, you misunderstand the current situation: it is those millionaires and companies benefiting from the current system, not suffering from it.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TueAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from yudhisthira]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1644892]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Dear Scott,

you do know precious few about China, right? Efficiency and no red tape...?]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[TueAMCDTE_Rthth]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from CliffClaven]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1644557]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[Why would a corporation want to be a country when it can dump so many responsibilities on whatever country it's operating in? Say you're paying wages low enough that employees qualify for (and need) food stamps. Your host country is paying a chunk of your labor costs. For that matter, your host country absorbs other expenses related to keeping your workforce alive and under control, environmental costs, infrastructure, and maintaining an artificial advantage in your market (&quot;incentives&quot;, friendly patent / trademark / copyright / contract laws, etc). Whatever you're paying in taxes -- if your lawyers are lame enough to let you pay anything -- you get back in value. Corporations are really closer to terrorist organizations than countries, anyway. They locate their official headquarters wherever their money buys the most power, and move elsewhere when that becomes uncomfortable, leaving the local government to deal with the sanctions and drone bombers. And corporations already have the power to move their legal headquarters to whichever state -- or country -- has the weakest laws and regulations. Of course the upshot is a race between governments, local and global, to betray local citizens and smaller businesses to keep a Job Creator in town, even if same is actually damaging the local economy.]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Comment  from langley]]></title>
<link><![CDATA[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/1643092]]></link>
<description><![CDATA[What about all those companies which are HQ'd in the Cayman islands or the Virgin Islands etc. I can buy glasses online, half the retail price that are made in China, shipped all the way from New Jersey to Australia and billed from Amsterdam. So they already have done this, no floating man made island is necessary.]]></description>
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