The Bill Gates Republic

i was thinking about this the other day...

in many 3rd world, or less developed countries you have countries with very small GDP.
the countries are very poor and impovrished.
what is stopping someone like bill gates or any other millionaire from coming in and buying the whole country out right?
if for some legal reason he couldnt actully buy the country outright, im sure he could pay the elected officials to resign and place him in their stead.
surely they could afford it, and many in the country probably wouldnt mind.

this could have many benifits for both sides:
for the people in the country it probably means a increase in wages and GDP and in turn better living conditions.

for the owner of the country he has his own country that he can do with what ever he likes and he could base his company out of and could have a reliable labor force. he dosnt have to worry about taxes.

i guess i really want to know why this could not happen, are there legal reasons why not?

other than the obvious reason, why couldnt i walk into antartica and claim it as a new country under my own rule, since it dosnt belong to anyone?

so many question so few answers, let me know why this wont work.

I don't see any reason why the citizens of Elbonia couldn't ask Bill Gates (or me, for that matter) to come in and be their king in return for him paying them a lot of money and under TBD conditions.

I can't see why Gates would want to, though: what good is the Kingdom of Elbonia to someone who prefers Geekdom and already spends billions of his money on social activism?

Antarctica is a bit different; there seems to be agreement of just about everyone in the world that anyone who tries to set up a private country in Antarctica will be kicked off, because Antarctica is sort of like a world park or something to most of the world powers.

I do know that several countries, like Chile, Argentina, and maybe New Zealand and Australia, have claimed pieces of Antarctica, but no one seems to take it very seriously.

Edited to say: I see you're from Maryland; may I ask where, in particular? I lived in Montgomery and Prince Geoprge's counties for seventeen years, going to school there and all.

[edit on 19-12-2004 by Off_The_Street]

Why would Bill Gates by a thrid countrie?
It would be like buying a software company with massive depths and no chance of future profit. Although I would like to buy the south Island of NZ.

well i didnt mean just bill gates buying a third world country, but really just anyone with way too much money to use. bill gates came to mind first.

to me it seems that if these mega millionaires can justify spending the money on some of the crap they do, like private yachts the size of small cruise ships and precsious jewel encrusted mr. potatoe heads for 16,000 dollars. then the next logical step to boost the ego a bit more wouild be to buy a country. if i had way to much money id do it.

id be a pretty cool leader, but i would ban MTV, and walmart. I would also demand the people refer to me as "your excellency"


Intresting point about the antartica thing, i had no idea anyone cared what went on down there.

also
Off_The_Street
i am from charles county, i notice that you USED to live in PG county... have you been by there recently? the whole area has turned into a huge ghetto of epic conditions, i would much rather live in a 3rd world country then there...DC ruined my beautiful state, im in SC in school right now but everytime i go back im shocked at how bad it is