Nomads in the HV?

Nomads in the HV?

One of my sisters has always detested states with a property tax. Especially after retirement age.

Is it possible to become a digital nomad in the HV for someone who has the means, a hyper capable yacht and no desire to be a citizen of any system? Are there mobile home parks in space? Can one live full time in ones camper/RV/yacht?


How to Become a Digital Nomad

https://hbr.org/2023/02/how-to-become-a-digital-nomad


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Popular Domicile States for Full-Time RVers

The state in which you establish your domicile will determine whether you owe state income taxes. If you choose a state with no state income tax, you won’t need to file state taxes. However, if you earn income from multiple states while traveling, you may still need to file non-resident tax returns in those states.


Many full-time RVers choose states with no state income tax, including:

Florida
Texas
South Dakota


These states are popular because of their lack of income tax, friendly regulations for RVers, and simplified vehicle registration processes. When establishing domicile, consider factors like healthcare, insurance, and vehicle registration costs.


Property Tax

There are states in the US that have low to no property tax. Some states totally eliminate property tax after age 65 or for people who have disabilities. I have always hated the fact that you can never really “own” your home. Even if you paid for your multi-million dollar home in cash and owe nothing on it, if you fail to pay state taxes on your nice lavish home then the state can take it away from you. So, at the end of the day, do you really ever own your home? In essence, aren't you really renting it from your state government?


States With No Property Tax For Seniors After Age 65

Alabama
Alaska
Florida
Georgia
Mississippi
South Dakota
Nine states like Florida, Texas and Tennessee do not have income taxes.


Health Insurance and Taxes

Healthcare is another important consideration. Since you’re not tied to one location, finding health insurance that travels with you is essential. Depending on your income, you may qualify for premium tax credits to lower the cost of your health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace.


So, in the HV, can a nomad live free of "the system?" By simply travelling about the galaxy and occasionally hanging out in certain systems? Perhaps even in the MBS trading commodities?

penny wrote:Is it possible to become a digital nomad in the HV for someone who has the means, a hyper capable yacht and no desire to be a citizen of any system? Are there mobile home parks in space? Can one live full time in ones camper/RV/yacht?

If the Honorverse is anything like our world today ships must be 'flagged' to a home country and there would be taxes/fees involved in that registration. Plus just fuel, maintenance, and crew costs on a hyper capable yacht is NOT going to be cheap -- it'd likely be way more affordable to live in luxury penthouse in a high-tax expensive city than on a hyper-capable yacht.

Now there are probably plenty of worlds where you could live fulltime in some camper/RV/aquatic boat equivalent. Given the ubiquity of aircars I suspect most worlds won't have the kind of road network the US or Europe have now, so it might need to be some kind of air-RV to get to the various RV-park style camper areas.

While there are probably plenty of worlds who would be happy to let a non-citizen (with means) live there indefinitely I doubt it'd be easy to literally be a person without a citizenship -- at least if you want to visit other habitable worlds which (presumably) have customs and immigration rules and want to see things like passports which are tied to ones citizenship.

Jonathan_S wrote:

penny wrote:Is it possible to become a digital nomad in the HV for someone who has the means, a hyper capable yacht and no desire to be a citizen of any system? Are there mobile home parks in space? Can one live full time in ones camper/RV/yacht?

If the Honorverse is anything like our world today ships must be 'flagged' to a home country and there would be taxes/fees involved in that registration. Plus just fuel, maintenance, and crew costs on a hyper capable yacht is NOT going to be cheap -- it'd likely be way more affordable to live in luxury penthouse in a high-tax expensive city than on a hyper-capable yacht.

Now there are probably plenty of worlds where you could live fulltime in some camper/RV/aquatic boat equivalent. Given the ubiquity of aircars I suspect most worlds won't have the kind of road network the US or Europe have now, so it might need to be some kind of air-RV to get to the various RV-park style camper areas.

While there are probably plenty of worlds who would be happy to let a non-citizen (with means) live there indefinitely I doubt it'd be easy to literally be a person without a citizenship -- at least if you want to visit other habitable worlds which (presumably) have customs and immigration rules and want to see things like passports which are tied to ones citizenship.

Interesting. Even on present day Earth one can renounce ones citizenship. And there are 23 countries one can visit which require no passport. Perhaps there are systems in the HV which require no passport as well. Why can't one register as a vagabond when visiting places like Manticore? Having and wanting no residence. Would one even need a passport if one does not intend to disembark and simply hang out in system participating in digital trading in the MBS making a killing then moving on?

I would be surprised if there were not systems -- perhaps like Parmley Station -- privately owned and tolerant of such things. A veritable mobile home park in space. Charging only for lot space and what is needed or used.

How do the many people in the Alignment move about without a passport? Or better yet, with a passport? There is no better digital trail than a passport. How do spies do it?

But then, it should be easier for spies since they do not have a habit of returning to the scene of the crime.

penny wrote:How do the many people in the Alignment move about without a passport? Or better yet, with a passport? There is no better digital trail than a passport. How do spies do it?

But then, it should be easier for spies since they do not have a habit of returning to the scene of the crime.

Spies are generally locally recruited -- so they have ID from that place. (It being a lot easier to find a disaffected, greedy, or blackmailable person who already has access to the secrets you want than to spend the years it might take to slip one of your own nationals into that position of trust.

But the foreign folks who might be deep cover, or just the intel case officers who are running the spies -- well they generally have fake/cover IDs from various places in various names. So they're just fine with digital trails because they have multiple identities and each one has its own separate trail -- never to overlap.

And those fake/cover IDs might be issued by their own government, in which case it's trivial to make them appear genuine -- or they might be forged/faked by their own government using details or digital info stolen from the government the credential purports to be from -- or they might have an asset inside that other government who's willing to make real ids for fake people on their behalf.

Jonathan_S wrote:

penny wrote:How do the many people in the Alignment move about without a passport? Or better yet, with a passport? There is no better digital trail than a passport. How do spies do it?

But then, it should be easier for spies since they do not have a habit of returning to the scene of the crime.

Spies are generally locally recruited -- so they have ID from that place. (It being a lot easier to find a disaffected, greedy, or blackmailable person who already has access to the secrets you want than to spend the years it might take to slip one of your own nationals into that position of trust.

But the foreign folks who might be deep cover, or just the intel case officers who are running the spies -- well they generally have fake/cover IDs from various places in various names. So they're just fine with digital trails because they have multiple identities and each one has its own separate trail -- never to overlap.

And those fake/cover IDs might be issued by their own government, in which case it's trivial to make them appear genuine -- or they might be forged/faked by their own government using details or digital info stolen from the government the credential purports to be from -- or they might have an asset inside that other government who's willing to make real ids for fake people on their behalf.

True. To add to that, spies have benefit of the technological prowess of its government, making it a cinch to have benefit of temporary biosculpting, etc.

Ok, the following is how things are on earth.

The Office of Coast Survey depicts on its nautical charts the territorial sea (12 nautical miles), contiguous zone (24nm), and exclusive economic zone (200nm, plus maritime boundaries with adjacent/opposite countries).

As you can see, the contiguous zone extends another 24 nm beyond territorial waters. It prevents smugglers, etc., etc., from escaping. I also imagine it prevents an enemy state from weaponizing your seabed by intentionally causing tsunamis. But the contiguous zone does not include the airspace associated with that zone. It only includes the surface and the seabed, and the resources like fisheries.

However, in the HV, the entire system and its resources are understood to belong to the system’s government. Ironically it does not automatically include a wormhole or junction. Initially I considered that bit of “Maritime Law” to be a bit strange and contradictory. Until I considered a wormhole’s tactical and strategic implications.

At any rate, I suppose there is no part of a system that a squatter can legally park his yacht?

BTW, consider the Oklahoma land rush of 1889. Why can't a nomad claim an area of space as his own? Even a planet. Said planet does not have to be a Class M planet if a nomad simply wants to hang out in space. Has the SL laid stake on the entire galaxy that was surveyed?

If a nomad claims an area of space as his own, he can proceed to set up his own puppet government.


What is Territorial Sea
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982), a territorial sea is the belt of coastal waters that extend at most 12 nautical miles from the baseline of a coastal state. When understanding this definition, it’s important to know that 1 nautical mile is equal to around 1.15 miles on land and that a baseline refers to a low-water mark. Moreover, territorial seas are the most straightforward zone. We generally consider this zone to be the sovereign territory of the state – this means, a coastal state has sovereignty as well as jurisdiction over its territorial sea. This sovereignty extends to the seabed, subsoil, as well as airspace over the sea.

However, foreign ships (both civilian and military) are allowed innocent passage through the territorial sea or transit passage for straits through it. This also extends to the seabed below and airspace over. If one state’s territorial sea overlaps with another, the border is considered the median point between the two state’s baselines. Furthermore, a state can also agree to claim a smaller zone for its territorial sea (i.e., less than 12 miles). In international law, adjustment to the boundaries of maritime zones is known as maritime delimitation.


What is a Contiguous Zone
The contiguous zone is the belt of water that extends farther from the outward edge of the territorial sea to up to 24 nautical miles from the baseline. This maritime zone strengthens a state’s law enforcement capacity and prevents criminals from escaping the territorial sea. Within territorial seas and contiguous zone, a state has a right to prevent and punish infringement of fiscal, immigration, sanitary, and customs laws. However, a state only has jurisdiction over the ocean’s surface and floor of a contiguous zone; in fact, it does not have air and space rights.

A contiguous zone of a state is typically 12 nautical miles. But sometimes, there can be variations. Unlike the territorial sea, if there is overlap between zones in two states, there is no standard rule for resolving it. The states must negotiate their own compromise in such a conflict.

penny wrote:However, in the HV, the entire system and its resources are understood to belong to the system’s government. Ironically it does not automatically include a wormhole or junction. Initially I considered that bit of “Maritime Law” to be a bit strange and contradictory. Until I considered a wormhole’s tactical and strategic implications.

At any rate, I suppose there is no part of a system that a squatter can legally park his yacht?

Generally, but not universally. Though of course there are unclaimed uninhabited systems where you'd be perfectly free to park your hyper-yacht. (Mind you, at some point you're going to need to make port to pick up supplies, spare parts, fuel, and get more significant maintenance done -- so at that point you're going to have to enter someone's territorial space)

Here's RFC's longer explanation from the pearls:

runsforcelery wrote: I realize there's been some confusion on this topic. Partly, it's my fault because I "knew" what I was doing and didn't write it down in the tech bible, which left me without a hard-and-fast reference and led me to misuse the terms myself on occasion. More of it though results from the fact that there are two limits which have different functions/applications.

One is the 12-hour limit — that is, a sphere six light hours [radius, -Ed.], centered on the star. This is the volume in which a star system claims sovereignty: any natural resources, habitats, wormholes, etc., within that sphere legally "belong" to the system in question. There is a caveat to this, in that various admiralty courts have held that to exercise that claim, the star system in question must hold "a tangible, genuine police power" throughout the volume. That is, if your star nation isn't capable of at least patrolling the volume (LACs will do for this purpose), then you have no recourse in interstellar court against someone else who exploits a resource or establishes a habitat in that region. You can issue all the injunctions you want domestically, but you cannot file charges in the courts of the star nation to which the violator belongs or in any of the recognized interstellar courts (actually arbitration panels more than anything else) unless you can demonstrate that you have the power to police/patrol the volume yourself. Once you acquire that power, your claim to anything within that volume becomes paramount. Within this sphere, actually attacking or damaging citizens or facilities, or pillaging natural resources (poaching in an asteroid belt, whatever) becomes a criminal act (if it's a private violator) or an act of war (if it's another star nation), but the right of free navigation extends to all parties so long as they refrain from any criminal act or act of war. The municipal law of the claiming star nation governs actions there, crimes are to be tried in the courts of the claiming star nation, etc., but simply passage through the region is a common right of all starships. This can be thought of as the equivalent of our current notion of Exclusive Economic Zones applied to star systems.

The other is the 12-minute limit — that is a sphere defined as extending 12 light-minutes beyond the star's hyper limit (or up to around 35-40 light-minutes from the primary. This is the zone in which freedom of passage is not a common right. Warships of another star nation, for example, may not cross the 12-minute limit without identifying themselves and requesting right of passage (the SLN frequently ignores this provision, by the way). All commercial/private ships become subject to inspection, traffic laws, commercial law, taxes, etc. Critical industrial facilities, population centers, etc., are normally located within the 12-minute limit for reasons of military security, and "crossing the limit" without identifying one's self is a violation of international law for a merchant vessel and an act of war by a warship. This may be thought of as the 12-mile limit recognized by the 1982 UN Convention on Law of the Sea, again applied to star systems.

Shadow of Freedom then mentioned that any ship entering (or emerging from hyper within) that larger 12 light-hour limit is supposed to announced their identity in a timely fashion.

(I suspect that that might not apply, or at least might not be enforced, in a system that doesn't police/patrol that outer zone -- but such a system is going to be a very dreary place to visit. Even the Talbott Cluster systems, poor as they were, all appeared able to police/patrol their outer sphere)

Note - as a reference point a 6 light-hour sphere is roughly where Pluto lies; though its eccentric orbit actually crosses it; getting as close as 4.1, and as far as 6.8, light-hours from the Sun.

And while ships have the right of free navigation in that outer 12-hour zone I don't think that right extended to dropping metaphorical anchor and living there.

Going back to that freedom of navigation -- I don't really understand why this is codified into Honorverse interstellar law.

Ships basically don't drop out of hyper unless their destination is in that system - and so wouldn't even cross the 12-hour limit unless planning to visit a planet or habitat of that system -- where they don't have automatic freedom of navigation. And that's been true at this point for hundreds and hundreds of years. There just isn't anywhere in that outer 12-hour zone for ships from other systems to freely navigate to!
(Yeah there might well be asteroid miners or refineries or the like out there -- but they'd be soverign terriotiry of the system so I can't believe a ship from outside would be allowed to freely navigate right up to docking with them without getting explicit permissions anyway -- so what's the point of codifying their right to swan around in the mostly empty space they've no real reason to be in without permission to enter other parts of the system?

I guess it has a little use in that warships can navigate through that outer part of the system to maintain legal surveillance on potentially hostile systems (as the pickets from Hancock were doing to Seaford Nine in the runup to the first war). But it seems unlikely that a freedom of navigation would be enshrined into interstellar law solely to allow surveillance.


And it doesn't seem like ships need to ensure they exit hyper outside the 12 light-minute limit and request permission to cross it - instead they seem to exit hyper well within that 12 light-minute zone to save in-system transit time. So you don't seem to need the 12-hour limit as a defense identification zone. In either case the ships seem to get a reasonable amount of time to identify themselves and confirm they're permitted to continue (or to reenter hyper if they're denied permission)


It's a concept that makes a lot of sense on Earth's seas where the only way past such an extended zone is often through it -- but that just doesn't apply to how travel works in the Honorverse.

penny wrote:At any rate, I suppose there is no part of a system that a squatter can legally park his yacht?

BTW, consider the Oklahoma land rush of 1889. Why can't a nomad claim an area of space as his own? Even a planet. Said planet does not have to be a Class M planet if a nomad simply wants to hang out in space. Has the SL laid stake on the entire galaxy that was surveyed?

If a nomad claims an area of space as his own, he can proceed to set up his own puppet government.

Oklahoma had rules for that...... big smile.

If you find a system -with or without usable planets- you can file a claim for it if it is not already claimed or owned by somebody else. Just where and with whom you file such a claim I can't tell you but there is going to be some minimum need of "registration" somewhere to prove you did it. Enforcing that registration is a differnt discussion. You can set up your own government but you are going to have to be able to enforce you claim to ownership. If there are already any inhabitants that could be iffy. If it's a system like Felix....well, apparently a number of people/companies have claims already registered even though it's "uninhabited" though the Mannheim SDF seems to be using it as an exercise area.

Then there is the small problem of enforcing you claim. That's why Nations/ Star Systems, Transtellars have arms and navy- along with local police forces- to turn away people who would take over what you have and .....perhaps make you disappear.

Most nations are not going to let you come in without some verification of who you are. Passports typically serve as the medium for that on Earth but Diplomatic Credentials issued by a Sovereign Government works. Keep in mind that Vatican City (aka The Holy See) in Rome, Italy, is a sovereign nation as the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church and issues passports and has it's own diplomats.

Illegal Alien and "undocumented person" are a thing. Crossing National Borders or entering a Nation without following that Nation's regulations can have consequences you may not like. Coming in as a tourist- ok you can apparently afford a hyper-capable yacht and get down on the planet under local "transient papers" or tourist visa but squatting on or in somebody's property illegally is going to also have consequences.

Bringing a hyper-capable yacht (or freighter) into the legal jurisdiction (as determined by Maritime Law in the several Star Nations of the Honorverse a whatever distance from a system's star or some radius from a wormhole which they can "defend") and your going to be requested (and required) to provide identification and registration of your ship.......the same from crew and passengers but the people might be handled electronically if the ship isn't docked and just stays in orbit. It will vary depending on whose National Territory you are entering.

A Star Nation is also going to require you conform to their laws (which will at least be "Generally Recognized Interstellar Protocols for Operations or Parking in Planetary Orbital Regions") and quite possibly charge you fees. They certainly will if you need to dock with a station and then there are Health Regulations and Customs.

If you are unlucky you might just end up in prison at hard-labor on the planet and somebody in the government has a nice new hyper-capable yacht- all strictly legal.