If you have cash to spare, now hear this: a new cry is heard across the seas. AVOID TAXES.
In the second quarter of the new millennium, in April 2001, a private German company will commence constructing the largest cruise ship of its type in history. Cruise ships have been growing larger ever since the industry was spawned. The big news is that anyone with enough financial resources can now have a permanent home afloat cruising continually in international waters except for occasional docking for supplies, which will shower great wealth on ports that will receive them warmly. Otherwise they'll just order room service -- via ship chandlers -- at sea.
Not merely a stateroom but a full-sized waterfront condo or individual home on the deck of the ResidentSea. Prices are scheduled to run from US$800,000 to 2.5 million. Rental units may also be available.
The real value is not only in the physical structure of your "floating home" wherever it roams, but you can now become a true world citizen, living beyond traditional government regulations and taxes. You become a Sovereign Individual! Interest, taxes on investment income, capital gains tax, income tax and other nuisances of life in the Industrial Age will cease. Kyou do not have to stay aboard. This new freedom makes democracy appear downright punishing.
To obtain this status, you have to be a real global citizen and operate globally, with income coming from several sources. You must give up (if you want total freedom from tax consequences) your previous country of residence. You must be able to run such a business from your home aboard The ResidentSea. Your "sphere of economic influence" must be this location. Worry not. This ship will be more technologically equipped than most modern offices. Anything you want in the realm of communications technology and almost anything else will be only a satellite dish and its connected fibre optic cable or a submarine aquamarine laserbeam away.
The real challenge is thinking globally. You have to be among the best at it. For take-it-easy sports-watching, beer-drinking coach potatoes it will be a tough swim. Canadian currency might be only three percent of your business. The Canadian population of 30 million is less than one-half of one percent of our planet's population and falling. Now you know where Canadians stand.
You will be competing with and a part of global eco-systems that live on, with, support and are supported by your own eco-system intertwined with others. Not in the system? Tough. Should have moved earlier and faster. "Getting in on the ground floor" was a yesterday rule. "Getting in on the excavation" still works. Soon you will have to be "in on the concept." Second place is history.
It's all because of rapid accelerating technology. A decade ago the shelf life of electronic consumer products, VCRs, vacuum cleaners, satellite dishes, TVs, computers, CD-ROMs, videocams, fax machines, film-using cameras (did they really?), cell phones and disc drives -- was 90 days in Japan. The rate of change has skyrocketed. Getting a product to the marketplace six months ahead of anyone else now means few competitors can ever catch up.
To maintain the pace of change tomorrow your company can't be held up by antiquated union rules, governments unable to operate at top speed, or old eight-hour days. Success demands long hours (welcome to the 168-hour week) and significant dedication. If you can't change the rules, move. Some products will never be available in some countries, except perhaps on the gray or black market, because manufacturers will refuse to comply with out-dated regulations. Like printing everything in two languages for instance. When you don't have such costs how can others compete with such flexibility, such global volume and such research and development? Impossible. Study the signs around you. Weren't here a few years ago, were they? Even English, the accepted global language, may be in peril. Product writing will become more symbolic.
When I was a kid, to get anywhere in law or politics, you had to know Latin, Greek or German. Then French or German. That also applied to medicine. Then Spanish or English. We better learn how to operate translators for tomorrow. Six languages are now automatically translatable and available from World Wide Web browser, AltaVista. At no cost.
When I was a kid in Philadelphia, imports were but five percent of what America consumed. Recently it was 45 percent. It's pushing 50 percent now and even then it's hard to tell where the products really come from. Parts often come from a dozen countries. Countries can't handle what they don't understand. In some cases there is a lot they don't understand.
If you check my ancient writings, you will see that I saw nation status as becoming obsolete. Few have worked with real efficiency for a generation. Look at Poland and the 161 other countries that have lower revenues than Poland. They are all in financial trouble. How come that's not a Wal-Mart problem? Wal-Mart has greater cash flow than any of those countries. Could inefficiency be their name?
In times of yore during the days of Ghengis Khan, the Crusades, the battles of the Prussian and the Ottoman Empires, or World War I or II, large well-equipped armies were essential to success. No country ever had an army equipped like Wal-Mart. They can handle 66 million grocery baskets a day. And by 1 a.m., they know which single item produced the most profit. How do you compete with this?
Maybe a home afloat would help.
It's less than one thousand days until the launch.
Get ready!
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