Independent countries trade with each other. They buy and sell products. If you use a German hospital it is under a reciprocal EU arrangement, if you use a Nigerian hospital you pay. Sealand does not trade with this country and pays nothing for facilities used. The UK does not use resources of other countries without contributing, indeed the UK is a net contributor through EU subsidies and international aid to other countries.
The UK does pays for all food imports, pays for any energy imports and buys raw materials on the international markets using an internationally traded currency.
Sealand gets no income from tourism as many small countries do. A stamp not issued in a UPU country is unlikely to be collected. I have a few novelties in my stamp collection from my childhood. They have no value.
To compare Sealand (popn 0) with the UK is frankly ridiculous. Sealand is not recognised as a country by any international agreement and is a lump of metal. The UK sits on the UN security council, heads the Commonwealth, is a member of the EU, NATO and OSCE inter alia.
Forvik is not a micro-nation in the way some of the Carribean countries are. The Carribean countries do make money from tourism and it is probably their key earner with the demise of fishing and cash crops. They are recognised as independent states by the UN and have inflluence there. They will be at the Beijing Olympics as members of the IOC which Sealand is not.
So independent is Sealand that it has no regular inhabitants and produces nothing of its own. Even the stamps and coins are printed or minted in the UK.
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When in Woking do as the Wokes do.
"I do not wish to form my opinions by thoughtlessly quoting others; I wish others to support their opinions by sensibly quoting me." Paul Wesson (Aardvark) 13th April 2008
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