Cities are the answer
I have posted several articles from this publication as negative examples, but I think this one puts forth an answer. the Federal government should stay out of life as much as possible as they are hard to escape from. The State to a lesser degree so they can have a little more power, but the city is very easy to move from. We should allow cities to "innovate" as much as they want as people can easily vote with their feet, in or out. The Gulch was a community with minimal rules. Something that appeals to the majority of those on this forum. Many think a more restrictive arrangement is desirable. If we could restrictive the political power to the local level we could prove our system. We all know the answer from the progressive is that they need bigger numbers to make their system work, but that is their problem. Unfortunately, it would require a laissez faire federal and state government to work. But it would give everyone the option they think is best and the opportunity to prove it.
Moreover, as the article admits, cities (not states) are the engines of the economy. And that is not an accident - and it is historically validated. People who migrate to cities abandon their folkways and find new cultural norms. "Stadtluft macht frei" they said in German - City air makes you free. (A serf who could live a year and a day in a city was legally freed from his manor.
As in the case of LGBT laws, cities have always been more "liberal"- expansive and innovative - than the countryside. In the Middle Ages, some cities even had women mayors. It was extra-legal (as was the rule of mayors in the first place, which led to Charlemagne, actually). While the manor was associated with a monastery, the cities were the sites of universities. Whereas the manor lord was a professional soldier, craftsmen have no time for that, so they used firearms.
If a city raises the minimum wage or makes discriminating illegal, the consequences will be felt sooner, rather than later. That said, though, Austin has special sales taxes above the state imposts. It seems not to have affected business here.
Quite a few other cities have come to assess the effectiveness of the OKC program and see if it might be a model for them to adopt. That kind of innovation, accepted by the voters, seems to be the idea of independent city initiative in action.
on early childhood ed , green energy , community
policing and my brothers keeper initiatives ment to
boost African American and Hispanic men."In Pittsburg we are like an urban lab where they can be sent to grow" Pittsburg mayor Bill Peduto'
Let's see early mind control Ed , inefficient energy, community policing ( WTF is that) my brothers program (statist collectivist racism at its worst-- See Ayn Rands essay on racism you tube)
The lab in Pittsburg with that input will look like an orange covered with mold.
In Minnesota the republican legislature is looking to pass a bill that requires a person to use the restroom or locker room or similar facilities based on their sex at birth .
The Dem Governer Mark Dayton has promised to veto. Dayton worth hundreds of millions from inheritance ( Target Corp ) has never held a job outside of govt. 1st wife was a Rockafeller inheritor. Just the kind of guest Hank Reardon's wife would have invited to a party. A piece of $hip.
He feels the wealthy should pay more in taxes except him, his family trust is held in (So.Dakota no state tax there ) a hypocrite.
One thing that is not taken into account is on a 51 to 49 vote it is possible to destroy the value of a person or businesses property so cities need to be held in check too. But it is still a whole lot better than out of control federal & state governments that we have now.
There is so much to be said for Private Property being a first absolute. Whatever "control" then is easily accomplished with Deed Restrictions.
I think what you really need is compartmentalization of units. You have to start with a base unit of governance that is one home. That one should have preeminent control and infringements on its rights and powers should be only where absolutely necessary. Next would come a geographical neighborhood level of say 100-500 homes. Then you would have a regional grouping of those neighborhoods, but on a much smaller scale of management, maybe between 6 and 12 or so. That would put every grouping into "communities" of between 2500 to 25000 people. That's a sizeable enough amount to be meaningful, but not an impossible amount to accommodate for town hall meetings, elections, etc.
In each case, as the levels go up they acquire less power rather than more, being granted power only where an aggregation of resources makes sense, such as for municipality services (power, water, etc.). Municipalities would then band together for mutual defense treaties, disaster relief and firefighting efforts, etc. I believe that this was the way the original Constitution was created: its aim was to assist the individual States in governance - not to take over. Sadly, it is the state of men that when some get a little power, it becomes an intoxicant and addiction and they seek only more.
1. Moral code (Ayn Rand's Objectivism)
2. Motive power (the ego as she identifies it)
3. Motor unit (concretized expression of her philosophy)
Up until a few years ago all this was theory and never actualized in totality. Mostly because #3. was not there - which is why you've seen various attempts at Atlantis collapse or vaporize in scandal.
Start from here:
www.GaltsGulchPortal.blogspot.ca
and from there do your own Dagny/Hank homework
& maybe we'll see you in June.
JohnGalt Iamoura
Anyone planning on making the trip in June - well, this preconceived improbable/impossible "forfeit" mentality is what you're leaving behind ... happily.
JohnGalt Iamoura
In the country give a family one hundred acres, a well, and a bag of seeds, some trees and a few tools and leave them alone unless they ask for help (barn and house raising days) country doctor, one is more likely to find a form of eutopia...stilll the need for and gravitation towards some form of power, medical aid, and social contact would need fulfillment. The need for groups to gather to build or make something needed still exist.
The need for medical, police, judiciary, and military still exist.
Laissez faire nous to complete the incomplete statement means leave me alone to make it or fail on my own. never forget nous at the end.
Cities tend to subjugate the rest of a country by virtue of sheer numbers and tend to breed human pestilence and living garbage at a faster rate. Unless they are self correcting.
One might use them as useful islands of convenience with the rest of the population spread out until the waning years but short of museums and symphonies they serve no other useful purpose except seats of government and centers of industrial production and a lot of votes. which means a balance would be required to the agrarian areas less laissez faire nous means Ok at a price. .
Whatever balance is struck no matter how successful give it 200 years maximum. It's like the yen to buy a new car every three years....A very human failing .
Eutopia meaning the place that can never exist is just that and one does not find it in towns larger, as suggested than 10,000. So....pass a law that excess population must move at least 100 miles down the freeway or off to each side and tie the whole thing together with a good transportation and distribution system?
Like many I see cities as living death traps.....based on the natural law of human nature fortified by the support given to those who would not work but expect to eat. So requirement one is let them learn to work or let them die. thus the harsh realities of natural law provide the control while trying to fool mother nature breeds failure.
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In my experience, the cities are very bad at curtailing day to day freedoms (local building codes, zoning, property restrictions, local police efforts )and a big chunk of money in sales taxes and property taxes, followed by the state (not so much in Nevada), and then the federal government for longer term freedom curtailment and large scale money stealing if your income is large.
We need to transition to more widespread, smaller population centers, with distributed power, medical, and environmental services. That kind of social structure shortens the distance between community management and the people they serve, making them more answerable to their constituents. It also reduces the spread of pandemics, the impact of power failures, and the ability of criminals to hide in large populations.
Large cities are an archaic construct, serving the needs of the powerful and creating an undesirable living environment. Well organized, full service distributed communities will be much more efficient, safer, and easier to manage, with individuals having a more direct say in how things are run.
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Many years ago in college I was "forced" to buy and read "Plato's Republic". 'Twas so boring that I read only a short while before trashing the book, so I can't say whatever it might import.
ONLY if each "level" of government as the levels are "upward" could be completely autonomous and exempt from the forceful edicts of "higher" levels might there be any hope for individual sovereignty. That's never happened, has it?