> Sep 2144: a factory workers in a Maskill Heavy Engineering
leave it to damyankees to come up with something like this....
> of the Alarishi Empire go on strike
SRTE's are hereby incorporated into Official Alarishi List
> Jan 2145: MHE sells its extramural assets and lays of its
You're really reaching here. "Vacuum Breatharian"? You also know that any
Alarishi can emigrate from any sovereignity? It's one of the (few)
constitutional rights. If you don't have the cash to pay for your
transportation, you can always sell your indentures or make a deal for working
passage on a freighter or something. Given our permanent labor shortage, it's
neither difficult nor onerous to do that. Unhappy workers can simply leave.
And post their complaints to labor websites, which will likely increase wages
the company will have to pay to new hires.
> Oct 2145: for the first time since the trade dispute, MHE
> 2169: The management of Athena Munitions (formerly Cut Above
The permanent departure of the last citizen means the sovereignity's charter
becomes void and the real estate reverts to Alarishi standard law; the
technicians on site can now
unioinize, strike for citizenship and/or other benefits, et
cetera. The Imperium inquires if the shareholders wish to continue to lease
the premises (for quite reasonable rates, the Imperium isn't trying to skin
anyone).
> This makes waves in
About a third of all stock in the Empire is held by the Imperium, which is not
surprising given that the systems were
colonized as a private corporate venture. No one worries about
dealing with Imperial companies--His Imperial Majesty has _very_
deep pockets.
> A report from the Service's surveyors reveals that the
The Imperium isn't interested in the computers (although the Planet of the
Geeks might take an interest), but habitable real estate is valuable in and of
itself.
> 2170 onwards: MHE continues to exist, an essentially autonomous
Still not convinced. Nice try though.
> >> The permanent departure of the last citizen means the
I was lying awake last night and thinking about this--this was
not the cause of the lying awake, just in case you're about to
start feeling guilty--and it occurred to me, "how do we define
when the sovereignty lapses?" It's either when there are no citizens in
residence, or when you stop paying the lease (if it's a natural body instead
of a ship or habitat). But what if you have a low population habitat, and they
leave (eg while the life support is being overhauled)? How long do they have
before they have to come back? Are we going to make everyone register on New
Year's Day to keep track of our citizenry? Alarish, libertarian capital of the
universe? Any time limit is
arbitrary, so scratch that concept--we want to avoid arbitrary
government as much as possible.
Of course, if you have no time limit, someone could claim a
number of asteroids and just visit them occasionally--but you
pay lease for any natural body, so if you want to stock up on planetoids, why
should we care whether anyone is actually there?
We're still getting paid, after all. And if you build an
artificial hab, why shouldn't you own it in perpetuity? Subject to salvage if
everyone dies off, but we can crib that from maritime law.
His Imperial Majesty is tentatively going to retroactively award sovereignty
status to MHE Corp's planetoid, despite its zero citizen count.
Congratulations, I think.
Laserlight,
> On Sun, 16 Jan 2000, Laserlight wrote:
> >> >> The permanent departure of the last citizen means the
i wasn't aware there was a lease; my bad.
i assumed that citizenship was as defined by the sov. all it needs to know is
that there is at least one citizen who is head of state, and who it can
contact if it needs to.
> But what if
no problem - they're still citizens, just not in residence. if i visit
my aunt in vancouver, i don't lose uk citizenship when i leave the uk.
> How long do they have before
depends on the habitat's rules.
> Are we going to make everyone register
right.
> Of course, if you have no time limit, someone could claim a
even if there wasn't a lease, you might not care if there were residents. say
i establish the republic of tom, claim a rock, set up a mining robot, and live
out my days in the Smoke Ring Hilton as a perpetual visitor. the sov is being
useful and productive, so where's the problem? the real issue is with sovs
which have valuable territory and aren't exploiting it. this is dealt with by
your lease.
another suggestion might be some sort of market scheme whereby people could
forcibly buy your land, so unless you were using it productively, and thus had
cash to defend it, someone else would get hold of it. maybe if someone goes to
the imperial property court with an offer, if the holders can get together
enough cash to beat the offer, they keep it (and don't need to pay), whereas
if they can't, they have to accept the offer. it's a rather mad scheme, but it
might work. the tenants might also be able to get loans from other parties
interested in them staying there, eg trading partners, which of course would
be purely paper, as the money would never actually be spent, whether the
tenants get to stay or not. i can't decide if this is communist or
libertarian, though. it's probably just bananas.
> And if you build an
right so.
> His Imperial Majesty is tentatively going to retroactively award
hmm. don't do that unless you have a pretty solid explanation of why a
zero-population sov can exist, whilst they aren't incredibly common
(there must be business advantages to setting up various empty sovs).
> Congratulations, I think.
i'll keep the bubbly on ice just for now.
peace, tom
> even if there wasn't a lease, you might not care if there were
The Emperor wants his cut. Paying for all those warships ain't cheap.
> another suggestion might be some sort of market scheme whereby
I thought about that but rejected it, since you may very well have sunk 1 MCr
into the place but not have the cash on hand right now to counter a hostile
takeover, and may not be able to get a loan.
> His Imperial Majesty is tentatively going to retroactively
Not especially. Usually it would be cheaper to set up in a location where
people already have habitats.
BTW I neglected to separate out two concepts in the course of this discussion.
"Citizens" could mean either "people who have a part in the political life of
the sov", or it might just mean
"residents". MHE-hab thus would have Residents (the techs) but
not Voters.
> On Fri, 21 Jan 2000, Tom Anderson wrote:
> Laserlight,
d'oh! that was supposed to go just to laserlight. for some reason, the
message he sent me had a reply-to header set to gzg-l; i missed it
completely.
tom