Ocean City

by Robert Klassen
by Robert Klassen

"We cannot see anything until we are possessed with the idea of it, and then we can hardly see anything else."

~ Henry David Thoreau, Journal, November 4, 1858.

This article is the summary of an idea for a novel that I have in mind to again demonstrate the efficacy of economic government to enhance and further the life of mankind, versus the destruction of mankind demonstrated by political government.

The story revolves around a "city ship," similar in shape and size to the largest cruise ship presently under construction, the Ultra Voyager. This ship is 1,112 feet long, 126 feet wide, and stands 18 decks high. It will carry 3,600 guests, and 1,400 crew members.

Whereas a cruise ship is designed to accommodate a maximum number of short-term paying vacationers, a city ship would be designed to accommodate an optimum number of permanent residents. I don’t know how many, but I would guess around 3,000 total – not a very big city.

The ship and its entire utility infrastructure would be private property owned by a person or company. People living on the ship would lease space according to their ability, and outfit that space with their own property as they wished, constrained only by contract with the ship’s owner.

Businesses would also lease space for various purposes, as we presently see in shopping malls, though we would also find financial centers and medical centers on board. In addition, there would be proprietary schools, recreation facilities, bars, restaurants, supermarkets, a heliport, and at least one golf course, all privately owned, of course.

Most of the ship’s residents would be contractors to one or several of the businesses on board; that is to say, nobody is an employee, as we understand the word. On Ocean City, you work for yourself.

There is no political government. Ocean City guarantees your security from force and fraud, that is coercion, as a part of your property lease, as it protects your property from fire and flood, also in the lease – or your money is refunded. Arbitration of disputes will be a service in demand, as will insurance, an open market for attorneys who offer a money-back guarantee for honesty.

So where is the dramatic conflict in this novel? Let’s say the ship is owned by a financial trading company, and that all of the residents contract their services to this company. Let’s say that all business is conducted via encrypted satellite email, and let’s say they are trading in a new currency, uncontrolled by any political government. This scenario is a political government’s worst nightmare, of course, so the Ocean City must be forced into submission. The Ocean City defends itself. Take it from there.

Political government cannot provide freedom, or liberty, or security, or justice; political government can only destroy each and every one by force. There is a better paradigm for government, and once we get the idea of it, we can see it everywhere.

October 14, 2004

Robert Klassen [send him mail] retired from a forty-year career in critical-care respiratory therapy. He is the author of five books, including Atlantis: A Novel about Economic Government, and Economic Government, which describe a solution to the problem of political government. Here's his web site.

Copyright © 2004 Robert Klassen

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