Re: Re: OT libertarian demographics - pointing the gun

September 7, 2003

In a message dated 9/6/2003 11:02:57 PM Pacific Daylight Time,

heidis@... writes:

> When in doubt ... EXPERIMENT!

>

That is what we're doing. Some just think it is not working.

September 7, 2003

:

>, very well said. I agree. When we are not allowed the right

>to choose it is no longer freedom is it?

>

>Bee

Well, you can do what the Swiss did to avoid the bloodbath of the Reformation --

they live in little city/states called Cantons. They declared some Cantons

Catholic, and others Protestant. " Move to a Canton that matches your religion "

was the edict. Harsh, but a darn sight better than what Spain did.

So you could have one state be socialist, providing a complete safety net, good

free schooling, paid vacation, paid child leave, paid retirement, medical

coverage, college -- and higher taxes. And another could be libertarian, lower

taxes and no government provided anything, sink or swim on your own. However, if

you choose the libertarian state, you are not allowed to move to the socialist

state if you get sick or want to retire or take paid vacation, you have to

provide for yourself or depend on the kindness of your community.

It would make a great experiment. Who would move to which state? What would each

state look like after 50 years? Which state would have the happiest people? I'd

imagine the rich folks would live in the " low tax " states, but they might have a

darn hard time finding maids.

To some degree, the experiment is already being done, between, say, Sweden and

the US. A similar experiment was done with Communism, between East and West

Germany, and Communism clearly was less desirable than the free market in that

case. However, in both cases, individuals really don't have much freedom to

choose (it is difficult to move to Sweden from the US! and there was the Berlin

wall, of course).

Interestingly, in Switzerland there is no discernable difference today between

the Catholic and Protestant Cantons, however! From which I conclude that if

there is a huge difference in quality of life for Catholic vs. Protestant, it

must be in the after-life.

When in doubt ... EXPERIMENT!

-- Heidi

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