07/07/21
Why were the Zionists able to form Israel, but Objectivists can't form a capitalist state? Here is a plan. There are 3000 Objectivists, and at least an additional 100,000 people who would be interested to live under strict laissez-faire capitalism. This is enough for a small town that could function as an autonomy. In many ways, this is the deal that the Amish have now.
The country granting the autonomy may impose penalties for traveling outside of the autonomy and/or importing and exporting products and services. But it should be strategically arranged that the autonomy can trade with other countries. For instance, if a town is placed on an ocean port, then it can import and export overseas.
What about the military? We would collect voluntary contributions from citizens of the autonomy, but we would have to collect enough to match a negotiated amount to pay the parent country for the military protection.
Israel was founded on uncultivated land, full of malaria swamps. Land like this, and worse, is available in many countries, including USA and Canada. But with tender love and care (TLC), we would be able to cultivate any land, even a desert. For instance, Buckminster geodesic domes can be built to create forests in a desert, and recent inventions have turned desert sand into good soil.
The fight for such an autonomy in court would get us significant publicity. We could hire lawyers who would negotiate a legal cessation from a host country and formation of an autonomy. What's the fee to hire such a lawyer? Assuming he works 10 hours per day, 300 days per year, and makes $300 per hour, we are looking at the expense of $900,000 per year. Is this a large number, given that ARI collects ten times more in donations every year? We can also come up with various financial schemes to make the lawyer's time worthwhile (e.g. make less cash now, triple more upon success).
Once we get the autonomy, actually settling there would not be insurmountable financially. We are far ahead of the technology that the Jews had when they cultivated Israel. A lot of work has moved online, and is international. We would make money online and trade it for goods shipped from overseas. Housing builders would be attracted to build for the immigrants who now have cash from selling their former homes, or from obtaining reverse mortgages.
The costliest task may be to arrange for fresh water if the location is a desert. In this case, we either dig a deep well to get it, or negotiate a feed from the host country or an adjacent country. If the location is on an ocean, we could get water from desalination (a problem that was solved in Israel). The problem of power can be solved by burning garbage received from the host country.
Furthermore, our success would be noticed by large countries and they would begin to emulate our politics. (Note that the Free State Project for New Hampshire is not what I'm proposing. That one still would need to pay federal taxes.)
07/08/21
Many young parents need two things: (a) a good education for children, and (b) to make enough money to raise them. If our projected capitalist state would have a good education system, and if parents can work online, then many parents would relocate.
Such young parents have a lot of energy to build, cultivate and improve their living conditions. For instance, they would buy a house and renovate it while living there. I know a lot of people like that.
07/23/21
Objectivists and libertarians who want lassisez-faire are too small in number to switch a large country to capitalism. But, if they all lived in the same state, in the same city, then they could secede and form an autonomy. Therefore I suggest for Objectivists to buy cheap private land, all near each other, thereby capturing a large territory, and then sell it off in smaller chunks to other people who want to settle there. The purchase condition is that the buyer must have a specific political view: in favour of capitalism.
As the town becomes more successful it will attract new people, turning into a city. But just like most people in Texas are religious conservatives, people in our city will be pro-capitalism.
I think there's higher chance of success with this plan than to turn a city in Texas towards capitalism. Also, there is a lot of cheap land off the beaten track with green forests and excellent weather.
07/24/21
The offshore zones welcome offshore money, but the locals themselves are far from individualism. At best, they are for a mixed economy with slightly bigger capitalist element. We have seen this with Cypress about 10 years ago, when the government demanded ransom from all bank accounts (this triggered the first rise of Bitcoin to $100).
I suggest to start with no baggage, like Galt's Gulch, and slowly grow it to something like a capitalist equivalent of Austin (with better weather). I think an important ingredient would be for this location to be remote and initially unattractive to people who are not committed to the capitalism idea. The conservatives have Texas, the leftists California, let's create a spot for Capitalists.