It would like kind of like Puerto Rico, but more high-tech.

I prefer the Swiss bank secrecy laws.

There are no "fast lanes" on Florida's highways. There is one lane for driving and one lane for passing. Staying in the passing lane while not attempting to actually pass a vehicle and returning to the driving lane is illegal, regardless of speed. Regardless of their motivation, anyone who gets into the passing lane and remains there with the intent to impede the flow of traffic is not a "safety advocate" or "vigilante", they are just a_holes.

This is Florida, and I think you just quoted almost verbatim the state's "Stand Your Ground" law.

I'd be happy if the airbag in the passenger seat would just shut up, with our without a cell phone or a deadman's switch.

And yet the economy and civilization in Europe remained in the dark ages after the fall of Rome until the Renaissance, at just about the same time that Portuguese explorers discovered dark skinned laborers from Africa. At that time slavery, and feudal serfdom, were still the order of the day, but it was not perpetual, hereditary slavery. It was indentured servitude, and the slave had a hope of buying his freedom or securing the freedom of his offspring. At worst case a slave could run away and still blend in throughout many parts of Caucasian Europe. This problem was solved when the Pope declared that black African heathens could be enslaved for perpetual generations. When they ran away they were much easier to spot.

After the industrial revolution it was no longer efficient to transport slaves from the third world to Europe and America, so the European powers instead focused on exploiting people of color in their own homeland through the establishment and control of colonies in Africa, India and Asia. Europe was forced to abandon control of its colonial assets to private global business conglomerates that can exploit workers more efficiently by setting low wages rather than funding expensive military and security forces to coerce labor.

And don't forget the "Holy Roman Empire" that persisted in the north, long after Byzantium was overrun by Turks. One could make the argument that Kaiser (German spelling of "Caesar") Wilhelm as the last Roman emperor.

It's worth noting also that while the "Empire" may have fallen, the barbarians who charged through the gates eventually inherited Roman civilization. From engineering to language to law, the Roman way of doing things persists to this day, with a few tweaks and improvements along the way. Very few of the unique traits of the separate barbarian tribes persist to this day, but most Europeans share a very similar Roman-style culture.

So, when he said "render unto Caesar that which is Caesars" he was actually claiming entitlement to both tax and tithe? Interesting.

The problem is that to an economist, the Second LIfe "Linden" is just as "real" as the fiat "US dollar", which is just as "real" as a gold certificate, which is just as "real" as a brick of gold, which is just a "real" as a hamburger, which is just as "real" as a tractor factory, which is just as "real" as a soybean farm.

For an economist information is an exploitable resource, as is microprocessor capacity and memory capacity. As long as more trade can take place for digital resources it will be conceivably possible to continue economic growth for a long time to come, even while a huge portion of the planet's population dies off in mass starvation.

For this reason I prefer to separate the concepts of "economy" from "physical economy" or "human ecology". What's good for the "economy" is not always good for the rest of us.

If you want specifics, then how about just two possible scenarios:

1. Major disruption in the supply of semiconductors. If war were to break out between China and N.Korea against S.Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, the entire world's production of semiconductors could be disrupted or shut off. Best case in such a scenario is that only critical equipment would be supplied until foundries could ramp up production in other countries. But ramping up semiconductor production isn't as quick or straight forward as hiring a few good managers, engineers, or production staff. It could take years to rebuild our semiconductor infrastructure, presuming we could afford the wait. Unlike many other technologies, this isn't one that we can throw together in a garage. The supply chain for semiconductors is incredibly complex, and given China's near domination of rare earth elements, any geopolitical standoff involving China could cause a major ripple effect across the global economy. Shortages of microchips could be weathered in the short term, but if dragged on for a year or more there could be real problems affecting any device that required a chip to function properly. These days, that's just about everything, from cars to home appliances to industrial automatic, ovens, furnaces, machine tools, etc. If our entire planet had to retool for analog controls and paper-based IT, it could lead to a long-term economic decline that could thrust us into a multi-century dark age, presuming civilization doesn't collapse entirely.

2. Peak Oil. I don't think I need to elaborate on this scenario, as it has been extensively discussed elsewhere.

More likely than not, a crisis in the supply of oil or microchips, rare earth elements, or oil could result in shortages of all three critical resources. I think that the OP's comment regarding our closed ecosystem is valid. If our population is sustainable and we are not too heavily dependent on technology or geopolitical stability, then we can weather a crisis and come through in tact. But if we are completely dependent oil, technology and a global supply chain just to feed our massive population, then we could be facing some serious trouble when the next big crisis hits. In this scenario a regional catastrophe could trigger a global catastrophe.

We still live on a physical planet and have physical needs. Just because we have a growing economy in arts and entertainment, and new apps to help us manage our social lives does not mean we do not face serious growth risks in the physical economy (ie human ecology).

Do you have any idea how many scholars and academics earn their living writing literature and creating works of art for the sole purpose of having other scholars and academics review, critique, and interpret their work, all while getting paid to sell textbooks that they write, and paid to tell students how important those works are to read and study?

By pointing out the lunacy of this system you are endangering an entire sub-culture and way of life. They could have you burned at the stake as a heretic.

Hold on - are you saying the government will PAY you to be homeless? Or is it just one of those programs that is only available in blue states? Do you just have to be homeless to qualify, or do you also have to be an honorably discharged disabled vet with minor children?

But they are nowhere near as bad as those passive-aggressive homeless folks that just sleep quietly on a park bench. I can't stand how they dig through trash cans looking for food or scrap metal - right in front of me! I can tell they do it just to put me through a guilt trip in an attempt to trick me into offering them some kind of help. What nerve!

What really makes me mad though is when I'm feeding pigeons at the park and some homeless guy starts picking up and eating the crumbs that were meant for the pigeons. Homeless people in the park these days just take all of the fun out of enjoying open space that my taxes pay for.

Just look to Libya if you want to see what happens when a poorly armed populace rises up against an oppressive military regime. The key though is numbers. In Syria rebels don't have quite the same level of support as rebels in Libya. Libya eventually received air support, arms and training from the West whereas the West is wary of supporting tomorrow's Bin Ladins. Syria also has a lot of outside support from Hezbollah and Iran, while Libya depended mostly on mercenaries from Sub-Saharan Africa.

So, fundamentally, an autocratic ruler cannot rely on tanks and bombs alone to subdue a major popular uprising.

Not all supporters of gun rights are conservative. I consider myself armed and liberal, and agree with the following quote:

"Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary." - Karl Marx.