All of the Theorycrafting about governments and economic models doesnt mean shit without being to empirically test (and therefore confirm/deny) it.

The biggest potential advantage is not a “tax haven” (as mentioned, you can work business loopholes, move money offshore, etc), nor “modularity” (you can just move). The biggest potential advantage is being able to use these sea-states as a way to ACTUALLY TEST AND COMPARE differing political/economic social constructs in a comparative way.

Instead of “Somalia is what a libertarian community looks like” or trying to compare communism vs [arguably more] laissez-faire with a case like China vs Hong Kong, we would have something much more valuable. You would have differing societal constructs with similar geographic (ie, middle of the ocean), with similar economic potential and resources (having to import/export a lot, rely on internet/service-industries and whatever local business can flourish).

The advantageous of this should be obvious.

…Or not… if you prefer to drone through life believing everything you see on cnn/fox/bbc/al jazeera, what your parents told you, what your politicians tell you, and what your equally drone-like friends tell you.

“But what if it fails?!?”

Oh F-ing well. Some money is lost. It beats millions of lives lost in a bloody revolution.