NOTE: The opinions and commentary expressed in this essay are those of the author and are an exercise of free speech. They do not necessarily represent the views of Free State Project Inc., its Directors, its Officers, or its Participants.

From the LP of Minnesota Newsletter "Minnesota Libertarian" Volume 29 Issue 6, December 2001

The Free State Project: An Introduction

How much is liberty worth to you? Try to quantify it: what would you give up in order to secure real liberty, the kind we Libertarians have imagined everyone would enjoy in an ideal society? Would you move to another part of the U.S. if it meant you could enjoy that kind of liberty, and participate in building it? If so, the Free State Project may well be for you.

The Free State Project (FSP) is a plan whereby 20,000 libertarians, classical liberals, and other advocates of strictly limited government will move to a single state of the U.S. to set up a free society. We will do this by working within the electoral system, starting by eliminating unjust state and local laws and practices, like asset forfeiture, zoning, state drug and gun laws, socialized schooling, and so on. We could also end state police cooperation with federal agencies in enforcing unjust federal laws. Then we would bargain directly with the federal government over achieving sufficient autonomy in other areas; in Canada, for example, the provinces have won the right to opt out of different federal programs in exchange for a tax rebate. We will continue to pursue decentralization until we have created an essentially free society.

The way it works is that the FSP will collect 20,000 signatures from people willing to move. Once 5,000 participants have signed up, the whole membership will vote on the state to which we will move, following extensive research on the candidate states. Our preliminary research indicates that 11 states are theoretically small enough for 20,000 activists to win most state-level elections: Wyoming, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, Rhode Island, Idaho, and New Hampshire. Don?t want to move to, say, Alaska or Wyoming? No problem: when you sign the Statement of Intent, you may indicate which states you reserve the right not to move to. The move only begins after 20,000 people have signed up.

What will make the FSP succeed where similar projects have failed is that: 1) we are researching the best place to go, rather than picking some arbitrary location; 2) we are relying on the decision of the membership, not one person?s fancy; 3) we are collecting signatures before the move.

The last is important because it means that there is no risk to signing up. If we don?t reach 20,000 signers, the move never happens. But if we do reach 20,000 participants, we will be on the brink of an achievement of historical significance.

To see if the FSP might be right for you, take a look at our website at www.freestateproject.org – and let us know what you think!