Townhall...
Government Makes Us Poor
By John Stossel  
October 5, 2011 

Here’s my fantasy: Libertarians are elected to the presidency and to majorities in Congress. What would happen next? Well, if libertarians were “in charge,” you’d have more freedom and prosperity. 

Freedom frightens some people. They say if no one is in charge there would be chaos. That is intuitive, but think about a skating rink. Before rinks were invented, if you proposed an amusement in which people strap blades to their feet and skate around on ice at whatever speeds they wish, you’d have been called crazy. There’s got to be speed limits, stoplights, turn signals. But we know that people navigate rinks safely on their own. They create their own order, with only minimal rules. 

Society would work the same way -- and does to a large extent even today. “Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government,” Thomas Paine, the soul of the American Revolution, wrote. “It has its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. ... Common interest (has) a greater influence than the laws of government.” 

If libertarians were “in charge,” there would be laws to protect us from foreign enemies and those who would steal from us or injure us. Today, by contrast, under the rule of Democans and Republicrats, we’re drowning in rules -- 160,000 pages’ worth. Micromanagement kills opportunity and freedom. 

Maybe if there were a way to have more competition among governments, things would be better. Competition forces people to become more efficient and to get rid of stupid rules. What if we let people take over some unused land in America to create areas with fewer rules, simpler legal systems, smaller government? 

I explored that subject last week with Michael Strong and Magatte Wade, founders of the Free Cities Project. 

Strong said, “We want to encourage thousands of people to create new governments that have different rules, each competing for customers with the best education and best health care, the most peace and prosperity you could imagine.” 

Of course, state governments would have to approve this. 

“There are already Native American reservations in the U.S. ... They can become more free. Honduras already has something like this. In Senegal, we’re encouraging a move toward an autonomous city-state that would allow for peace and prosperity.” 

Wade is Strong’s wife and an entrepreneur from Senegal, where she saw firsthand how bad rules prevent people from creating prosperity. 

“We need jobs. Who creates jobs? Entrepreneurs,” she said. 

Read the rest of the column at Townhall