Do Libertarians Barely Care About Liberty?
Flipping the mirror of hypocrisy
People barely care about relative income. How do we know? Because you can easily raise your relative income by moving to a poorer neighborhood, state, or country. Yet almost no one does. Actions speak louder than words.
People barely care about equality. How do we know? Because you can easily experience more equality by moving to a more equal neighborhood, state, or country. Yet almost no one does. Actions, again, speak louder than words.
But now that we’ve established the hypocrisy of a vast swath of statists, an awkward question arises: Can we use the same “actions speak louder than words” logic to show that libertarians barely care about liberty?
The defensive answer is just: Look at all the weird places that vocal libertarians have decided to call home. Thousands of libertarians relocated to New Hampshire because of the Free State Project. Hundreds of libertarians spend a notable share of their time in Honduras to savor the freedom of the charter city of Próspera. Mark Lutter is a veritable Johnny Appleseed of global charter cities. The indefatigable Christoph Heuermann, founder of the tax-nomad start-up Staatenlos (and the world’s youngest German to visit every country on Earth!), helps thousands of clients around the world escape statism via strategic migration. And let us not forget Liberland! What other ideology inspires more migration?
Still, in absolute terms, the percentage of libertarians who have moved to a weird location in the name of freedom is low. What should we say about the sincerity of the vast majority of libertarians — including yours truly — who haven’t relocated?
Weird enclaves aside, the United States probably remains the most libertarian country in the world, and a majority of the world’s libertarians are U.S. citizens. Upshot: Most libertarians are already in the freest normal country on Earth.
Legal migration to the U.S. is very difficult even for high-skilled foreigners. So the fact that foreign libertarians haven’t moved to the U.S. can hardly be counted against them. Furthermore, a high share of foreign-born libertarians who have the legal option to move to the United States do in fact relocate. Possibly even a majority. This holds true for libertarians born in other First World countries like Canada, the UK, France, or Germany: If the U.S. government allows them to move here, a high share exit their countries of birth.
Many, perhaps most, libertarians’ explicit position is: “I value freedom as a means to greater prosperity.” And within any free-migration zone, market forces tend to equalize net compensation. So the failure of this brand of libertarian to relocate is not very telling.
In contrast, U.S.-based libertarians who insist that liberty is intrinsically valuable should be moving to freer regions of the country. And any U.S.-based libertarians to insist that liberty is highly intrinsically valuable probably should have already moved to one of the freest parts of the country.
What do we see? Within the United States, libertarians really do tend to move to low-regulation, low-tax states like Texas and Florida. Though to be fair, the same probably holds across the political spectrum. Even progressive Californians are fleeing progressive California.
Glaring exception: A notable contingent of libertarians, usually working in tech, resides in the Bay Area. Why? Because incredible tech industry opportunities more than compensate them for the notoriously high taxes and strict regulation.
Overall lesson: Libertarians do pretty well by the “actions speak louder than words” test, but they don’t pass with flying colors. While libertarians are unusually likely to vote with their feet in the direction for liberty, only a handful of those who proclaim “Give me liberty or give me death” take their words seriously.
Which, to be blunt, you shouldn’t. Contrary to Oliver Wendell Holmes, taxes are not “the price we pay for a civilized society.” Taxes are the measure of a society’s lack of civilization. But taxes are the price you pay to stay out of jail, and jail is terrible.
And what about me, Bryan Caplan? If actions speak louder than words, how much do I really care about liberty? I live and work in northern Virginia, definitely the most libertarian part of the greater DC area. I live here, instead of New Hampshire, for both career and family reasons: I couldn’t get nearly as good of a job in New Hampshire, and my wife wouldn’t want to live in New Hampshire. Doesn’t that mean that I value my career and family harmony more than a little extra liberty? It does. But in all sincerity, a major part of my sky-high career satisfaction is that I have such ample opportunities to think and discuss liberty with stellar minds.
I think, for a lot of libertarians or "libertarian~ish" people like myself, you gotta ask: freedom to do hwhat?
A lot of libertarians have their pet causes and glaring exceptions.
Mine are free speech and being pro-life, respectively.
I understand the libertarian position on drugs, but drugs are not my cup of tea. I'm not against the legalization of drugs but it's not my hill to die on. I am not gonna uproot my family to move to Oregon or Portugal, because they have laxer regulations on a hobby that I don't even partake in!
I think all of the US has relatively good free speech. Even in blue states. Moreso than any other "normal" country.
I don't see other libertarian causes being really championed by any other state/country that I would, personally, benefit from...
* Hong Kong WAS nice but not anymore.
* Prospera seems promising but I worry about the future of ZEDEs.
* The UAE has relatively low taxes. But limited free speech. And you better not start a business that competes with a Sheik's business!
* Milei is doing necessary cuts in the size of government in Argentina. But it still has a long way to go. It's getting better. But it's still not great again. If I lived there, I fear I wouldn't make much money, or, at least, would not be able to afford a decent standard of living.
* Tanzania had lax Covid restrictions, but incomes are low and Covid is over, anyway. Besides, mostly, my life was back to normal after I got fully vaxxed in July 2021. It sucked for the unvaxxed. But, not my hill to die on.
I noticed a pattern... Given the opportunity, I am willing to uproot my life to move somewhere where MY rights are not being trampled. But, for others, like drug aficionados, the pre-born and the unvaxxed, I will use my voice to fight for their rights in my current jurisdiction, but I will not necessarily move to somewhere where their rights are not being trampled, just in solidarity with them.
I'm thinking a lot of my own life, here. I am mindful of my privacy so bare with me, if I'm a lil cryptic with some of my details.
I live on the border between 2 provinces in Canada. I work in the public sector. It is one of the biggest employers in my area and I have a decent job with them. I live in the province with lower taxes. One of my employees lives in the high-tax province and I keep trynna convince him to come to the "dark side". Haha. But that province also has cheaper electricity, car insurance, water and housing, along with subsidized day care. Part of the reason the low-tax province has lower taxes is because of more fiscal restraint. We don't really have subsidized day care, for example. But part of the reason is simply cause we have more public debt per capita.
If my employee had 3 kids, electric heating, 2 cars, a working wife and a house, maybe I would tell him to stay in the high-tax province, cause it would be cheaper for him. I'd imagine some of y'all would be like: "NO! You should always choose the province with lower taxes/less government out of principle!" But isn't libertarianism all about letting individuals pursue their own self-interest is better? Are you really gonna blame someone for pursuing their own self-interest?
Could I move to an even lower tax province? Yea, sure. But the housing is not much cheaper, if cheaper at all. The jobs in my field are not super plentiful and the weather is prolly worse.
I recently married an American who lives in the Bay Area. We decided that I would join her in the US, rather than the other way around. I think there are plenty of job opportunities in the Bay Area and they pay well. Especially considering that the low value of the Canadian Dollar. Also, the US is generally more free than Canada. Especially hwhen it comes to free speech. Canada is over-doing it with "Bubble Zones". It started with abortion clinics but it's gotten really out of hand. Yes, I am aware free speech isn't perfect in the US, either. But Americans value free speech more. Especially, in the long term, I see the US as having MUCH more free speech than Canada. Canadians don't value free speech the way Americans do. They like their bubble zone laws. I don't much like my fellow Canadians.
If I could, I would prefer to live in Austin: lower taxes, cheaper houses and pro-life. But my wife is kinda settled in the Bay Area and wants to stay there. I want us to, at least, visit Texas. But come to think of it maybe the wages are that much higher in the Bay Area to compensate for the higher taxes and maybe it's good to live in a "pro-choice" state. More people who need their minds changed!
I wouldn't really live in Florida. It seems like hwhere old people go to die. And it doesn't necessarily strike me as "free" just anti-woke. Like didn't Governor De Santis make it illegal for cruise lines to ask for proof of vaccination? That doesn't sound very free market to me! I think a lot of cruise passengers are elderly and they would be afraid of going cruising again in the early post-vaxx days. It should be up to companies and consumers to choose vaxx policies. Not the government!
I wouldn't wanna live in New Hampshire. It's almost as cold as Canada. If I could live in the US, living in a warmer climate is much more important to me than hwhat? Being able to ride a motorcycle without a helmet? I don't even ride motorcycles!
I think Prospera looks promising. But I'd have to get a job there and convince the Mrs. So far, I've convinced her to visit there with me. I think some of their promotional videos featured a pre-existing luxury on Roatan that joined them cause of the lower taxes. I think that helped! Haha.
I got so much more to say, but I gotta get back to work!