Politech back from hiatus (and a quick note on the Free State Project) [econ]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Sorry, folks, for the lack of Politech updates recently. I've been 
traveling more than I'd like and haven't been as caught up on email as 
I'd like. One stop was speaking at a UNESCO conference in Paris also 
organized by the World Press Freedom Committee and the World Association 
of Newspapers, which I wrote about here:
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6160323.html

Another stop was the Free State Project's Liberty Forum in Concord, NH. 
The Free State Project is, of course, the grassroots group that is 
organizing a political migration to New Hampshire in hopes of creating a 
freer society along libertarian lines.

That means activism of the most local and non-glamorous sort: holding 
social events, trying to get pro-liberty candidates elected, 
buttonholing politicos when possible. It's helped along not only by the 
state's "Live Free or Die" culture but also the fact that New 
Hampshire's legislature has around 424 members (thus each represents a 
relatively small number of residents).

So far it's unclear how well this is going to work. They've signed up 
some 20,000 people so far in principle, and say they know of about 200 
who have already moved. But two things that the Free Staters have going 
for them is that it's a social bunch of people and, based on my 
impression over four days, devoid of any serious internal conflicts that 
could imperil the effort.

It's worth watching to see what happens -- and, if you're able to work 
remotely and are looking for a change of scenery, you could do worse 
than give New Hampshire a try. The border's about 25 miles from Boston 
and the state has no sales tax or income tax.

Rep. Ron Paul, a free-market Texas Republican who has announced 
tentative plans to seek his party's nomination, spoke there:
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6162179.html

-Declan
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