Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 06:08:10 -0700

Think about it.

When it's time to buy a new car, do you simply sit back, watch TV then buy a car based on the TV ads and pay whatever price was advertised, no questions asked?

Or do you first think about your needs, figure out the features you want, consider your priorities, find out what cars are made which include those features, research their quality, compare their costs, talk to owners, take them for a test drive, then finally go from dealer to dealer until you find the best buy?

Why do people vote for evil, again and again and again and again...and wonder why they always end up with evil?

Here is an idea for a new approach.

First we figure out what we need to get free, then we shop around for a county that will act as 'host' and put our political product on the market. (Getting free is no different than putting up a web page :-)

Finally, you must decide how much you are willing to pay for your freedom.
Is it only worth a one in a million chance if you walk into a voting booth every few years and choose the 'lesser of evils', or is it worth a little bit more?
Is it worth the price of possibly having to relocate in order to vote in a county with people that will respect your rights and not threaten you with violence in order to coerce your support for 'public' purposes?
Is it worth the price of having to change jobs, or maybe even vocations?
There was a time when men were willing to risk their lives for freedom...but I think we can find a better price today :-)
In any case, you get what you pay for.

Let's just consider the county government level first.
(Counties in states with terrorist laws and police that will not be likely to respect local autonomy at least a little bit are not worth considering.)

* We need a mayor, sherriff, maybe a few city council-critters all committed to the same program. I'd volunteer...it could be anybody.

* We need a program (there could be as many variations as you want, each with different moral values). Simple, easy to understand:

1. No elected official gets paid a dime of blood money from the government; donations would be accepted from individuals, but little will be required since our officials will do very little official work.
2. If elected, first priority will be to educate the citizenry in how to educate THEMSELVES about how to protect their own persons and property and how to perform citizens arrests when needed.
3. All government functions will cease to be funded by blood money and only non-coercive functions will continue, and only to the level at which individuals choose to fund them, by donation. The concept of 'public' funding (i.e., theft) would cease to exist.

All county taxes cease to exist. There is no funding for enforcement of any state or federal laws, although individuals would naturally enforce laws concerned with protecting persons and property. (How many people do you think will take time off work to arrest and prosecute someone for smoking pot, destroy that person's life by putting them in jail, taking them away from their family, etc.?) Since there is no blood money for schools (i.e., no property taxes), families will need to organize to home-school their kids or create private schools for that purpose.

* Sell the program - find a host, i.e., a county that will vote for it.

This will take some leg work since we need to find out what each of several counties will charge before choosing the best one.

Obviously, we want to pay the lowest price so we select counties with the lowest populations, say under 10,000. Then we do some market research and poll prospective voters in each county and ask each of them what they would charge to vote for our program. If the program appeals to the voter, then the price for their vote will be zero (they might even jump for joy and help us poll their neighbors). If the program does not appeal to them, then we ask how much it would take to BUY their vote. (I don't think this is illegal. Richard Daley, 'The Boss', used this technique in Chicago with great success. It is the essence of 'pork-barrel' politics. Proven and effective. We are simply offering a 'vegetarian' menu :-)

Finally, we add up the total cost to get a majority of votes in each county under consideration, then focus our efforts on the county that offers the best prospects for success at the lowest price!

A better cost estimate and lower price could be obtained by inducing people to immigrate into any given county in order to vote for the program. (I would relocate just about anywhere where I could be free, amongst kindred souls who would respect my person and property. Maybe you would too.)

Leg work could be minimized by doing some of the polling on the web.
I will start working on that in the next few months.

- Tom Paine