Billionaires can buy societies, but they cannot buy meaning. That can only be found in Christ

What do the rich do when there’s nothing left to buy? 

In 2024, crypto-billionaire Justin Sun bought a banana taped to a wall at Sotheby’s New York. He paid $6 million for it – then ate the banana. More recently, he paid $28 million for a ride into space – to be honest, good value compared to the price of bananas! 

Billionaires have bought everything our planet has to offer, from yachts and islands, to absurd art, space rides and political access. Now, presumably because there is little left on the shelves, some are looking to buy something new. 

Why not buy a society? 

A recent BBC documentary and article explores the growing number of ultra-wealthy people attempting to establish their own “micro-societies”.

The BBC focuses on the Free Republic of Liberland, a small seven-sq km area of disputed territory between Croatia and Serbia. In Liberland, politics, government and belonging depend on how much money you have. It’s a self-proclaimed state, unrecognised by any other country. But it is only one of several billionaire-backed attempts to create a society in their own image. 

California Forever is another project backed by tech-billionaires – including the co-founders of LinkedIn and Netscape – to establish a new city free from what they regard as dysfunctional bureaucracy and resource wastage. They have spent $900 million (£667m) buying 60,000 acres northeast of San Francisco. Other US examples include Elon Musk’s Starbase town – largely for his SpaceX employees – and his latest proposed city called Snailbrook, both in Texas. 

Some of these “new cities” are in developing nations, where it can be easier to secure legal autonomy. Prospera in Honduras is one, under Honduran law, but with significant legal, regulatory, and tax governance from within. 

Of course, in mature democracies like the US, you can’t simply declare sovereignty on a small patch of land and expect anyone to take you seriously. But wealthy developers can acquire large areas of land, exercise considerable influence over residents and employees, and eventually seek municipal status, gaining power over local planning and infrastructure. Starbase became a Texas municipality in 2025. 

These examples all arise from a reaction against traditional western society, and all involve the super-rich acquiring huge influence over how society is run. They sit on a spectrum of experimental societies with Liberland at a more radical end. 

In the documentary, Liberland’s settlers repeatedly describe their project using the word “freedom”: freedom from government, freedom from taxes, banks and regulation, and as one supporter put it, freedom from “bums” who drain economies through welfare payments. The article observes: “To Liberland’s wealthy backers, helping the poor - or indeed any form of taxation or centralised redistribution of wealth – is an affront to their individual liberty”.  

These are ‘libertarians’ who hate taxes, regulations and big government, but whose understanding of “freedom” means people with more wealth get more say. 

Corruptocurrency 

In several of these societies, one of the founding principles is the adoption of cryptocurrency for their finances. They see cryptocurrency as freedom from banks and state control. Cryptocurrency works in a decentralised manner, meaning, there is no central Bank of England etc.

It is decentralised with financial transactions tracked on computers worldwide, in a kind of virtual spreadsheet called a Blockchain. Suffice to say, these decentralised financial systems are very hard to tax and regulate but are not illegal. 

On the face of it, there’s nothing wrong with adopting cryptocurrency – as several of these societies do – but this currency is often directly linked to disproportionate wealth and influence.

The consequence of human pride and arrogance is a repeated warning from Genesis to Jesus.

In the USA, the “crypto lobby” contributed $238m in the most recent elections, according to Fox Business, and are now the most powerful “pay to play” lobby, having overtaken the financial contributions from the fossil-fuel lobby. 

And the Trump family own several cryptocurrency businesses including World Liberty Financial which, since the start of Trump’s second term has soared in value turning it into an extraordinarily lucrative business for the Trump family to the tune of $800 million (£593m) in 2025. With foreign powers making huge investments into this organisation, the New York Times and others have raised the obvious issue of conflict of interest. 

At this point this all sounds like a 21st century grab for money and power, and to an extent it is. But money and power don’t tell the whole story. 

If you can’t find meaning, buy it

These micro-societies also demonstrate a deep search for meaning. After all, once you’ve done everything else…taken rides in space, bought political power, funded life-extension clinics, and still have more money than you could possibly spend, what else is there to buy – except meaning itself? 

I believe Liberland and its counterparts are a search for meaning. It reads as a salvation story where sin is any form of taxation, weakness is dependence on the state, and salvation is escape from societal norms. But this isn’t progress as they suggest, it’s going backwards to a time when only aristocrats and wealthy landowners could exert influence or exercise a vote. To Christian ears, it’s a modern-day parable of greed. 

There are many biblical stories warning against the greed and arrogance of trying to re-define a world on our own terms.

Here are some of the wealthiest people on earth, who could do great good, choosing instead to build a tower that reaches to the heavens, “so that we may make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11), building an even bigger barn (Luke 12), and constructing a whole city built on sand (Matthew 7).

The consequence of human pride and arrogance is a repeated warning from Genesis to Jesus. Although a small number of tech billionaires have given away vast amounts of money, for most, the pull towards finding meaning, with their name written on it, seems irresistible.  

The Christian worldview provides a strong antidote to the human tendencies of greed, pride and arrogance, which, if we’re honest, we all find traces of in ourselves. For us, meaning is found by being in Christ.  

In Him, we can discover the surprising freedom of no longer being owned by our money and the invitation to seek the common good of those around us, including those with the least.