Fatcat,
I sincerely wish you all the best in achieving whatever measure of freedom you believe you can attain wherever you are or plan to be. It just seems to me that you have an axe to grind with the FSP for some reason. I don't know why.
I just want to know if you have a better idea than the FSP and what your strategy is. I'm certainly open to it if it makes more sense than the FSP.
Hell, I'd rather NOT uproot my family and move to NH, even though it sounds like a great place to live in and of itself. But as someone who has tried other strategies for decades, the FSP seems to be the most viable one since it proposes to concentrate the greatest number of liberty activists in one place in the shortest possible period of time.
If you reject the principle of concentration, that is OK with me, but what is your alternative strategy?
I think i covered this in the post before last in there "where else is good for liberty" bit, but i'll go over it again.
Personally, I plan to move Zug, Switzerland, in the next few years, partially for business reasons, partially for personal freedoms such as buying, using and growing marijuana, legal prostitution, legal euthanasia (not the most useful freedom, but i like being in a place that respects my right to have people kill me), being able to buy guns and automatic weapons (not really a big draw for Americans, but I live in the UK where you can be arrested for carrying a slightly sharp pencil, let alone a gun).
I can't see Switzerland going too bad in terms of freedom, it has stayed relatively clear of the EU (although it has been tangled in some agreements). I expect maybe a little more in taxes and a little more in certain gun regulations, but not much else.
Drug freedom has been increasing as of late (10 out of 16 cantons have legal marijuana, other drug laws are largely unenforced), legal euthanasia and prostitution are unlikely to go, and due to Switzerlands system of national defense, its pretty much impossible for them to get rid of guns (all men in Switzerland are trained with assault rifles, though thankfully there is the opportunity to opt out).
Also Zug is only has a population of 109,141, and its only 30 minutes drive from Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland.
Zugs taxes are amongst the lowest in Switzerland, probably the lower than anywhere, only 8.5% federal income tax, and Zugs own income tax of 8 percent. Its hard to calculate an exact number with the amount of disparate taxes involved, but I think total tax burden is around 20-30%. Also theres no Swiss minimum wage, which is a nice plus as a business owner.
Switzerlands federal government is also much much less invasive. Switzerland hasn't invaded another country in centuries, and is unlikely ever to do so in its current form. Swiss cantons are also much more autonomous from national government than US states are. Direct Democracy is in effect, which can be a good or a bad thing, but in Switzerland, cannabis legalization was largely brought about by Direct Democracy.
In terms of long term freedom, I don't see any mainland place getting considerably freer in the next 20 years or longer. Most places are if anything going to get worse. The richer people get, the more government they can sustain. Aside from a few small issues (i could see cannabis and prostitution becoming legalized in a few places), taxes and regulation are going to rise globally.
So as I mentioned before, the
Seasteading institute is pretty promising, both in the resources put behind it, and in the realism the subject is being dealt with.
Whether a "free" ocean city could actually survive without government intervention is yet to be seen, but it'll be an interesting experiment.
In my opinion you shouldn't move to NH unless you would do so without the FSP's existance. Sure you will have a small libertarian community there, but you can find like minded people anywhere, and the FSPs influence and scope is really negligible.
You're looking at around 50-200 sign ups a year, so to get to 20,000, it could take at an optimistic rate 50 years, but at the current rate 100+ years, and that rate has been decreasing since 2001, so its not likely to suddenly spike up without a really good reason. If 10,000 people can make a difference, great, but its been
8 years since the project started, and what has it achieved?
What will it achieve? How much more will its power have to grow before it could start making a difference?
Make a list of things you'd like to achieve. Legalized drugs? Lower taxes? Legal Automatic weapons? No speed limits? No welfare?
How many of these are going to happen, and how long will it take? Try and get FSPers to give you an answer and measure how realistic you think they're being.
People already involved will want you to believe that success is round the corner, that a snowball is rolling, but liberty in our lifetimes it is not.
"Slightly freer New Hampshire than it would have been in our lifetimes", doesn't really have the same ring to it.