The idea that a free and mostly privatized society would let pandemics rage unchecked is based on a crude caricature. The truth is that a free society offers flexibility and resilience that a centralized system lacks.
Buckley does an excellent job of outlining the problems with large centralized states. But he ends up calling for “secession lite,” that is to say, mere devolution of power to the states and localities. I wish he had moved in the other direction and explored the ways people can solve their problems without resort to the state.
The coronavirus crisis must cause us to rethink the idea governments can manage these situations. It is absolutely true that most private industry can be trusted, because the alternative for poor or unscrupulous providers is failure.
As the member states of the EU begin to shut their internal borders to their neighbors, we're reminded that state-to-state open borders in a place like the US do come with a downside.
As the nation-states take the brunt of their economic collapses on the chin, they will begin to realise that the EU superstate is little more than an obstructive and costly irrelevance.
Remember how election day used to be a day of national relief, no matter who won? Regular people were happy that our political warring was over for a while, at least. But we don't live in that country anymore.
Recently disgruntled residents of rural counties in southwest Oregon have been organizing a petition to move Idaho’s border westward to form a “Greater Idaho” that could also potentially include parts of Northern California.
For starters, let's have California secede and limit Bernie-style socialism to the new republic. If my predictions ended up being wrong and the state became a paradise, then the rest of the country could quickly follow suit.
The Swiss constitution wisely puts a "date of expiration" on the central government's taxing power every 10-15 years. Voters have to vote "yes" to extend this power. Americans should demand something similar, both for taxes and for much more.
