Atlantis must be free 3

Posted by upston 9 years, 4 months ago to Philosophy
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Atlantas must be free

So this is where the rubber hits the road , if we all agree that the mission is to create an autonomous remote location with legal authority over the future development of the city state
.” Atlantis” then we are are on the same page , yes?

1. The Atlantis Development Company is formed with an expanded explanation of the above mission statement . The location of the legal entity is probably not the US but a safe haven country like Belize or the Bahamas or Netherland Antilles as examples.


2.Shares in this company will be offered to prospective residents or just investors ( if successful this will make a very good return) . The shares offered will have a three step funding obligation each step predicated on execution of specific benchmarks being achieved. The total cost per share should be say $3000 and an IPO of 10000 shares for a total phase one capitalization of $30,000,000

Step one. a volunteer group will be formed to promote and sell ten thousand shares and as sold 10% or $300 is paid for $3,000,000. This first phase will identify five locations with favourable legal , geographic and political history that the board of directors have chosen after a consultant team has conducted an extensive study of the matter.
This team would include legal, engineering and political lobbyist and the hand picked board members all with a sympathetic bent toward the goals of Atlantis, people who get it.

Legal documents will be drawn customized to the five locations selected, a free trade agreement if you will. that set out the right of self governance and the lump sum fee paid to the grantor.. Further and most important the document will set the rules for exercising the agreement putting all five selected locations in a simultaneous count down and the first grantor to make the needed approval wins the prize. This is exactly how large companies , Tesler, Disney, NFL teams get favorable and often outrageous special considerations from local state and even federal agencies.

Step 2. Now the winning country lets say candidate 3 agrees to the terms of the offer so the other four offers are withdrawn and the second round funding call is made to the 10,000 shareholders This money is paid to the grantor to secure the agreement , say 15 million or $1500 per shares. Upon formal legislative approval the cash is handed over and physical control is taken of the site.

Step 3 This leaves twelve million or $1200 per share to A. SECURE the location and B construct phase one infrastructure so that the company can begin land sales to the first permanent residents and in turn use those proceeds to pay a nice dividend to the investors and begin construction of phase 2.



Some will insist that we have no chance of selling 10,000 shares at $3,000.00 if that’s true then it’s moot and I will sail off in my very nice sail boat, complete with a huge solar array water maker , lots of ammo and fish hooks. But if successful we can control our destiny. I have seen some comments that we need to wait for a wealthy Mulligan type to lead the charge, it could happen but what is the motivation of a Gates or a Buffet, they have no problem with the current state of affairs and in many cases rely on croney deals and insider perks to make and then keep their billions. Why is Buffet against the XL Keystone pipeline, well he owns the train that transports the bachman shale oil to texas and business is booming.

Thanks again to all for you comments, I would be happy to expand on this very brief summary if you have questions, if you think it will never work try and be specific as to your objection , if you just feel it won’t well those are your feelings but not much I can do about that. To the spelling and grammar police I sincerely apologize , I realise any mangling of the syntax is offensive to your sensibilities but the spell checker has is’t limits , perhaps you can volunteer as the Atlantis scribe and keep the writings pure.


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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 9 years, 4 months ago
    Another Gulcher and I had come to basically the same conclusion last night, except not in such glorious detail. To get the kind of numbers we need, it would need to be crowdfunded via Kickstarter.
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    • Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 4 months ago
      The funding is more complicated than upston proposes, and it is one of the biggest problems in equity funding in the US. (It is by design, of course, to insure that Wall St has a near monopoly on equity funding.)
      If you plan to sell these shares to US residents you will have to register with the SEC if you have more than 500 shareholders (it will be a 'public' company by definition) , and that means that Wall St will steal (on average for a small company) $2 million of your capital, and likely the Wall St firm involved will insist on a piece of the action, too.
      Crowdfunding may be feasible but it can't resemble share ownership (if I understand it) and we will need legal consultation to get it right, if possible at all. I believe we can pre-sell products as many do on kickstarter, but if it is real estate we will likely be faced with another set of legal restrictions ostensibly to protect widows and orphans, but actually to protect monopoly business interests.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 4 months ago
      Hi J, you are the ring leader and I nominate you as the chairman of the board. Kickstarter only funds products not concepts or ideas. That said some version of crowd source funding is the way to go for sure. The first thing we need is a world class web e commerce human, ??? any volunteers??
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      • Posted by $ jbrenner 9 years, 4 months ago
        Thanks, upston. I am a decent organizer, but my weakest area is fundraising, which would be a necessary prerequisite for a chairman of the board. I have not done much web e-commerce either. I can help, but I am not the person for this job.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 4 months ago
    I love that you're doing trying to put this together. Some questions:
    1) Of the $30M, $3M goes to sales commissions, $12M goes to secure the location. The remaining $15M goes to construction. Is there a more detailed breakdown?
    2) Must investors be accredited investors (aka qualified investors) to purchase shares?
    3) Is there a business plan for how the organization itself (not just the resident businesses) could make money?
    4) How does the board work? Can the CEO chair the board?
    5) Do you have a possible management team would work PT getting the details straight and commit to working FT if you get funded? (You *need* a kick-a$$ management team with a background in international business, software/IT, and hospitality to sell this to investors.)

    "I will sail off in my very nice sail boat" I know you didn't mean it, but this is an unfortunate choice of words from someone asking for donations for a controversial humanitarian endeavor.

    If you could get a hotel / convention center started with some suites converted to residences and leased to software startups who want to bypass immigration rules and can't their core team together in an isolated spot.

    If you have the time for this, I hope you find people with a background in these issues to make it happen. I think it's a great idea.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 4 months ago
      Circuit Guy, You rock, you get it, you asked all the right questions.

      On the boat matter, I will fight for this effort to the last but it is my plan B, plan A is the sail boat. We all need a plan A in case we fail. I was trying to point out that this plan is not born from desperation but rather a rational and logical path if enough like minded pioneers can be found.

      I will do a new post on your points 1-5 soon but the short answer is yes I have all the details spelled out to your questions.
      Some quick points on ! the $3m goes to consultants not sales commission. No sales commissions are needed if the idea is good. When an IPO is announced the shares are sold or not but no commission is involved.
      2. Is this a security? If sold in the US perhaps so that is why the legal entity should be off shore.
      As to the hotel /convention center , this is the appeal of the island , medical tourism, research, banking , all the aspects of modern life will flock to a City State if it can offer real relief from the looters.

      Excruciating details to follow.
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      • Posted by edweaver 9 years, 4 months ago
        But CG will elect people like Obama to run the government in the new gulch. I don't think the gulch will last long with that kind of leadership. My 2 cents.
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        • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 4 months ago
          I was born long after the bipartisan consensus was established. I obviously would not promote anywhere a situation in which gov't was intrusive and accounted for a third of GDP.
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          • Posted by edweaver 9 years, 4 months ago
            Huh?? What did you just say? Is it that you would not do in Atlantis what you have help do in America by voting for Obama?
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            • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 4 months ago
              I wholly reject the premise that President Obama, any politician, or any political party is responsible for our problems. I strongly support President Obama, but I have no illusions that he alone is bringing fundamental change. The same is true for any president

              Under president XYZ, will a third of our GDP be spent on gov't? Will we have endless "wars" against age-old problems like crime and drugs? Will we maintain a huge standing army stationed around the world to respond to world events? Will we hear arguments that various problems are so bad that the US Constitution and US laws don't apply? Will gov't pay for over half of most people's retirement and medicine? Of course the answer is yes. It's not even subject for debate.

              It's like my asking, "Are you saying you would not do in Atlantis what you help do in America by buying into the show-business-for-ugly-people games?" That's a bogus question on my part because you didn't create this nonsense.
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