Refugee market

There are people in Cuba, Haiti, and other places that would like to leave. Some of these are paying like $10,000 each to get smuggled into the USA. Seems the money usually comes from relatives inside the USA.

If seasteads could get as cheap as $40,000, then some families might buy one instead of paying to be smuggled into the USA. A small seastead like the Ball House might get that cheap.

Refugees from natural disasters (tsunamis, earthquakes and hurricanes, mainly) or from illiberalism may find it suitable to come live and work temporarily on nearby seasteads until they either gather enough funds to restart and rebuild, or clear through immigration checks and procedures and relocate. This presupposes a suitable transport infrastructure and housing but may provide a continuous stream of both cheap labor and revenues - or of demographic growth if they work at expanding the fleet and settle permanently.