More and more lately I have been having this odd, utopian dream. I’m curious if others have too. Without getting into it very much, I have been to the belly of the beast here in the US. Corruption and disdain for liberty, families and children (things I value) is surprising when you see it in person. Granted, I had to go places where few dare tread to see it: governmental organizations, a Federally-backed health organization…heck, even some at our local school district. As a result, I regularly spend some time researching other lands with hopes of finding something better.
In a rare silent moment recently I envisioned a place much like the Gulch. Imagine actually living in a place where kids were really safe to run around, where taxes were extremely low or purely voluntary, where the government (what little there was) didn’t spend an ounce of energy pitting citizens against each other. While it seems like a pipe dream I remembered a small community where my grandpa owned a cabin when I was growing up. It was on an island up in Puget Sound. The community was left alone by the government, the homeowners there would occasionally make some decisions by committee, the people there would manage their own infrastructure, etc, and kids (especially me) would roam free. It really was magical. It has since been altered by a turn-over of citizens, replaced by a new generation that has lost any grasp of what could be – what once was.
My question is – Is there any place on Earth like that anymore? I’ve heard murmurs of places like Uruguay, New Zealand, Chile, Ecuador. Is there any place really run under the rule of minimal government, maximum liberty? The lands south of here seem to offer a steady diet of crime. It appears that pockets of Chile may fit the bill. What say you? Is there no place left for this wild idea that people should be left alone?