Path to Liberty

It's slowly dawning on people that democracy hasn't resulted in more liberty. The people supposedly representing us aren't in fact representing anyone but themselves, their friends and their financial backers.

No amount of voting will change this because the system is fundamentally corrupt. Only the corrupt thrive, so it doesn't matter how well intended the newly elected politicians are, they are soon captured by the system, and they are either tamed or thrown out.

This is also why revolutions don't lead to anything but temporary relief from the ruling class, at best. No revolution has ever done anything but replacing one ruling class for another. Anyone joining a revolutionary movement thinking that it will bring liberty is naïve. If you're not part of the group of revolutionaries likely to take power, you're simply a useful idiot, canon fodder for the feuding elites.

This is why we should reject any call to overthrow the government. Instead, we should find ways to avoid it, starve it, and finally ignore it. While this may sound daunting and unrealistic, it's in fact the only path to liberty, and it comes with some notable perks along the way. For one, a lot of money can be saved and made without any risk simply by finding legal ways to reduce taxes and get subsidies.

First of all, we need to realize that our biggest expenses are taxes and fees levied by government. We must therefore find ways to appear as poor as possible in the eyes of bureaucrats. We must not own things that imply wealth, nor should we work long hours for salaried work if there are things of value we can do without reporting our gains to the government.

My younger brother owns two summer houses, and he works extra hours to pay for the taxes and fees associated with these properties. In contrast, I don't work at all, and I'm just as well off. The reason for this is that I live in a modest apartment in a low cost country, and my wealth is in a form that doesn't invoke taxation. My fixed income is therefore able to support my expenses.

The family business which provides me with a fixed income is heavily subsidized by the state, so I don't have to seek extra subsidies in order to live off the system. I'm benefiting from it without having to do anything. However, others may find that they too are eligible for state hand-outs. If these come with few strings attached, there's no reason not to get some of this.

A libertarian friend of mine lives on a permanent disability subsidy from the state, and I see no shame in that. In fact, finding subsides is just as an effective way to starve the beast as is tax planning. The trick is to be on the receiving rather than the giving side of the system.

Only when we have found ways to avoid and starve the beast can we go on to ignoring it. Politicians come up with all sorts of causes that they want us to join. They also have a whole series of things we have to partake in, such as elections and tax returns. However, almost all of it can be ignored without consequences. Only the tax return has to be taken care of, and that becomes very simple once we're down to no official income and no official wealth. In fact, I haven't filled in any tax return lately, so this too can be ignored once we're correctly positioned.

But the beast isn't going to keel over any time soon, so we must teach our children how to navigate the system. We should also share our insights with friends interested in learning from our experiences. This requires only that we point out the main features of our particular solution because everyone is in a different situation. Solutions have to be custom made by each of us. There's no one size fits all when it comes to liberty.

We should never push our ideas onto others because that's likely to draw resentment and anger from people who refuse to believe that the system is a trap to be avoided and exploited. However, if we lead by example, people will eventually start asking for advice. When people see that we live comfortably with less effort than they do themselves, they will want to know what's our secret, and that's when we introduce them to the virtues of libertarian anarchy.

The social contract