Everything I Own

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.

Everything I Own Has Got Wheels underneath It

by Glen Hubbell

You will never be able to clearly measure how much of your current, economic life is determined and controlled by other people until you commit to the full time RV lifestyle.

The most obvious difference is the cost of your home: A good used motorhome or travel trailer can be bought for under $20,000 and paid off in a few years as a simple car loan. A conventional stationary home will cost you far, far more and require decades to pay off.

The next most obvious difference are the taxes and other assorted fees: An RV can be licensed and insured in the cheapest possible state (Nevada is very popular). A conventional stationary home, on the other hand, is a easy target for every tax proposal, insurance scheme, and community improvement scam imaginable.

The third most obvious difference is the utilities: In an RV you own your own utilities. You can make any alterations or improvements you like, within the limits of common sense highway safety regulations, and can shop around for the best buys (non-fluoridated water, cheap propane, next-generation storage batteries, etc). In a conventional stationary home, you are told what utility services you can have, how much they will cost, and you will need to get permits to alter or improve anything - or face stiff penalties.

The single most expensive cost related to operating an RV is the cost of fuel and repairs required to drive it. Here though, a wide variety a strategies have evolved to suit every budget and purpose.

Some people never go anywhere. They buy a piece of land and park the rig, or pay a small rent to hook up to a friends house, or get a long term caretakers job which allows them to hook up for free.

Other people bounce from place to place as money or jobs allow. Others make a habit of moving from one free campground to another (up to 14 day limit). Others, like myself, park the rig somewhere as a base camp and use a smaller camper to do all the exploring and sightseeing.

And finally, because of space and weight considerations, everything you own or want to own must be thought about and justified: the barbell set and the aerobic jungle gym thing? The two car garage full of stuff you might need someday? 100 different clothing outfits with matching shoes? Probably not easy to justify.

Once you get through this process and work out your personal system, you will find a level of economic freedom you never thought possible. Also this will be a freedom that you create and control every day - not a political freedom that requires agreement with other people or a cultural freedom that constantly requires you to tell other people to mind their own business.

Song for a Free State

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.

We came for freedom, we came for peace,
The gears of state will lack our grease.
We came for liberty, we came for air,
We're Free State people, awfully rare.

We left our homes, we left our farms,
We won't forget our firearms.
We left our cities, we left our states,
We're Free State people, not inmates.

We went for life, we went for zest,
Laissez-faire is always best.
We went for good, we went for right,
We're Free State people, see our light.

We stand for justice, we stand for truth,
We stand together, age and youth.
We stand for wisdom, we stand for reason,
We're Free State People in any season.

Recipe for a Free State

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.

Recipe for a Free State

by Philip Denisch

Cake Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (3/4 pound) butter
1 pound confectioner's sugar (10x powdered)
6 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 3/4 cups flour
chocolate chips (milk chocolate, semi-sweet, and mini size)
chocolate bars (milk chocolate, white chocolate, and dark chocolate)

Run to the oven and quickly set the dial for 325 degrees Fahrenheit, because we can’t get a free state fast enough. Then slow down, realizing it won't be had in a day.

Skip to the freezer, because you're happy the free state is on its way and place the chocolate bars inside. Go to the sink, turn the water on and marvel at the wonders of indoor plumbing. If you don't have indoor plumbing, what are you doing baking a cake?!

The grizzlies are probably just outside your door, watch out! Run! Run! For the rest of us, walk to the refrigerator and take out the butter. Hold them high in the air as you make aaah-aah angel sounds and gently place each of the 3 sticks of butter on the counter top. Honor them and say their names with reverence as you lay them down. The stick of Liberty, the stick of justice, and the stick of commerce.

Skip over to a chair and study Ludwig Von Mises's "Human Action". The butter should be soft by now. Place the butter into a large bowl (again with the aaah-aah angel sounds). Get out your handy-dandy hand mixer, although it doesn't mix hands nor does it mix things by hand, anyway… turn it on and mix up the butter until the liberty, justice and commerce are blended well together, or is it blended together well.

Either way, journey over to the cabinet and get out your powdered sugar. Gently pour the sweet sense-of-life powdered sugar into the butter while reciting the Ode to the FSP and mix until they meld into a joyous combination of complimentive tastes. At this point you may want to stick your finger in and take a taste -- well worth it. You could use a spoon if there's someone watching.

After that, locomote over and fetch your eggs. You will want to add one ovum at a time to the mix, stirring well between each addition. May I suggest first, that you start with the egg of freedom, from which all else grows. Next the egg of capitalism, to bring about a standard of living next to none. The egg of tolerance should be next, so that even those not just quite like you won't get in the way of getting your freedom. The egg of bravery can go in next, for the cooking of a free state won't always be easy. The egg of wisdom needs to be in there also, difficult to get, but worth a great price. The final egg is tenacity, sometimes you just need to keep on going.

Add the vanilla next. The potent, almost pungent, extract that gives a zing, without overpowering. Kinda like the eccentricities of those "unique" people with "refreshing viewpoints "we meet from time to time.

The final addition to the base of the cake is flour. Solid, firm, reliable flour. Think of it as common sense, holding together the other ingredients. Permeating the whole, saturating the entire conglomeration with sagacity and reason. Intoning upon the totality of the project a sense of…sorry, got carried away a bit.

Slowly add the flour while beating, recalling the main points of John Galt's radio speech to the country. Mixing by hand or better yet with spoon in hand, introduce the chocolate chips into the batter. First the semi-sweet, only half the bag, though, we don’t want too much homogeny. Add the teeny-tiny chips next, this will please all of the miniarchists. The milk-chocolate chips can be sent in next to mix with the whole and, like the others, never lose their own identity.

Get the chocolate bars out of the freezer, take the white and dark chocolate ones and throw them into the trashcan, we don’t want any violent extremists. Break up the milk chocolate bar with the back of a spoon and crumble it into the mix. All the little odd bits-and-pieces will help hold the whole thing together.

Pour the batter into one 10 inch tube pan (for you big, out-west types) or two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans (for you "right-coasters") while singing the Ray Charles version of "America". Place into the oven for about an hour or until a wooden pick comes out clean. Re-read Leonard Read's "I, Pencil" while smoking a cigar, puffing a pipe, quaffing an India Pale Ale, guzzling a glass of ouzo, talking dirty under your breath or whatever else you want to do until it's time to prepare the frosting.

When the cake is done, let it cool in the pan 5 minutes and then cool on a wire rack completely before frosting, we wouldn't want the thing to tear apart when we try to frost it, now would we?

Frosting Ingredients:
1 cup milk
instant pudding (4 serving size), any flavor, chocolate's my favorite, as if you didn't know
1/2 cup powdered sugar
8 oz. tub frozen whipped topping

Mosey on over to the freezer and take the frozen whipped topping out and put it into the refrigerator. Read Ayn Rand's "Philosophy: Who needs it", and Murray Rothbard's "Man, Economy and State". That should be enough time for the whipped topping to thaw.

In a bowl, pour in the milk. You are, of course, Free To Choose and pour the milk right on the table, but trust me on this, it works better if you use a bowl.

Add the instant pudding mix next, beating and whipping and stirring. A bit of sweet, sense-of-life powdered sugar next that makes you want to stand up and say, "When in the course of human events…"Do some more beating and whipping and stirring.

Now, gently, and I mean this, gently take the whipped topping and fold it slowly and carefully into the pudding mix. Pretend you're writing a constitution or something and you want to make sure each word is exactly right, each phrase, just as it should be.

When the mixture is consistent, pause for a moment, and think about a distant ancestor who may have been enjoying a nice juicy root he'd just dug up at this time of day.

The penultimate step is to frost the cake, and remember, if you don't make a mess, you're not doing it right. The last step is to share this cake and what it means with as many people as you can, so we can all eat cake -- and in this one instance only, have it too.

Frosting variation: make 1/2 or 1/4 of recipe with different pudding flavors and swirl them around to give that "a-herd-of-cats-just-stampeded-on-my-cake" look.

Aug 6, 2002

The views expressed in this essay do not necessarily represent those of Free State Project, Inc., its Directors, or its Officers.

Quality of Living

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.

Quality of Living: A New Recruitment Strategy for the FSP

Address to First Annual Porcupine Freedom Festival

by Jason Sorens – 26 June 2004

Well, the topic of my talk is supposed to be, "We're Making History." But I think that part of the Free State Project is pretty much self-evident, so I'm going to concentrate on some more subtle aspects of the Free State Project, grouped under the general heading, "Quality of Living."

The Free State Project appeals, I think, to the project pursuer in all of us. (And here I am going to touch on the formal title of the talk.) Human beings are naturally project pursuers. We aren't content with merely surviving in a hand-to-mouth existence, or in a totally unreflective hedonism, or in a mindless collective stupor. We're beings that wish to shape the environment in which we live, to see our intentionality reflected in our surroundings and respected by others. The libertarian philosopher Loren Lomasky even believes that this capacity and yearning for pursuing projects is the aspect of our nature that yields moral rights and responsibilities toward each other.

The Free State Project itself is obviously a grand project aimed at enhancing the environment in which we all live, and I think part of the lure of participation is that it invites us to imagine what could happen if people really could translate more of their hopes and dreams into reality by working together. The original idea behind the Free State Project was that those of us who favor a freer society could actually make some of our visions of the future come true, while the alternative seemed to be simply allowing distant political forces continue to act without regard for our persistent, sincere interests and demands. So that much is clear – the Free State Project is a loose coordinating mechanism that should yield substantial political reform. But I believe that to sell the FSP to the 14,000 additional people we're looking for, we need to emphasize the nonpolitical features of the FSP that affect our Quality of Living but that may have been overlooked to date.

First of all, the FSP isn't about instantiating some kind of society that seems ideal in the abstract. It's about very concretely and incrementally improving the conditions of living for everyone. What I'm thinking about here is the fact that a free society allows for diversity in people's projects. So long as they don't hurt others, people are permitted to pursue their own projects and plans of living in a free society. Individuals will be much happier the freer they are to design their own immediate environment and join together with others voluntarily to shape the wider environment. Even more than that, though, I think human beings enjoy observing the projects of others. Why do we like to travel? I think one of the biggest motivating factors in leisure travel is the desire to see how other people live. Sometimes we can find out through travel ways of living superior to what we are used to. For my wife and myself, selling our car and living an urban neighborhood lifestyle in New Haven, Connecticut was partly stimulated by our experiences in Europe. But even when I observe a way of life that I would not want for myself, I can respect that way of life and relish the fact that people are allowed to live that way if they want to. Because I know that their freedom means reciprocal freedom for me – I can feel more secure in my life plans when others are secure in theirs. A free society allows significant diversity in projects within the same society or population. You don't need to travel to appreciate the ways different people live in a free society. The Free State Project enhances quality of living by allowing for a greater diversity of projects that we can observe and participate in if we choose.

Second, quality of living is enhanced by enjoying access to others' talents, capabilities, and interests. The social aspect of the Free State Project comes in here. While we've always wanted the FSP to be loose and decentralized, totally nonhierarchical and noncommunal in the strict sense of that word, we have to admit that the FSP has its own social aspect. By participating in the FSP, you have an immediate bond with a number of people sharing some of the same interests. Everyone in the FSP shares a common ideological background, but there are many different backgrounds in the FSP as far as culture, ethics, religion, and aesthetics. We need to make it easy for people involved in the FSP to find others – both within the FSP and in the existing population of New Hampshire – with the same interests and general goals. The social aspects of the FSP were what impressed me most when I revisited New Hampshire for the first time since my wife's and my first anniversary in 1999. That was just a couple of months ago, and I met other Free Staters and friendly Granite Staters at a barbecue in Somersworth. It was clear that people who move to New Hampshire are getting the royal treatment. They're invited to parties, they can get help moving in, they hold regular get-togethers, and they're plugged into the political scene in any ways they wish to participate.

So I think we're seeing some of that same social dynamic here at the First Annual Porcupine Freedom Festival. Let's face it, it's nice to have friends. Many of the projects we as individuals wish to pursue require the cooperation of others of like mind. Socialists have frequently claimed that human beings are social animals, and that this mere fact meant that individual rights do not exist. It's true that human beings are social animals, but it's a system of equal maximum freedom that allows individuals to maximize their voluntary and effective cooperation for common goals. So I think one of the Free State Project's campaigns will be, more or less, "You have a friend in New Hampshire." That's simply one of the benefits of participating in the FSP and moving here.

Another aspect of Quality of Living is simply what New Hampshire already has to offer. New Hampshire has consistently been ranked as having among the best, if not the best, qualities of life among all 50 states. The numerous advantages of New Hampshire are catalogued on our website, but we need to go further and tailor specific information for people considering relocating. That will be a large task, but I think we have to recognize that people participate in the Free State Project only when it suits their own life plans. And that's the way it should be. The Army advertises an "Army of One" to potential recruits, and we need to stress a "Free State Project of One." One idea to address this point might be to have permanent counselors who can give some advice to participants and potential participants about economic opportunities in their field, their particular tax situation in New Hampshire, where to find out about real estate, and so on. Some people may, because of an unusual situation, find that they don't get a tax cut from moving to New Hampshire, although I think most will. So then those people will have to consider whether the other advantages I'm highlighting here make relocation worthwhile. Certainly we can stress with the Free Staters relocating, future tax increases in NH are extremely unlikely, so the long-run climate for investment is quite stable. Probably quite a few more people will find that their tax burden decreases substantially, but that their wages will take a cut by moving to New Hampshire. They also have to make a decision as to whether quality of living makes up for the pay cut. In addition to the quality of living advantages of the FSP itself, the crime rates in New Hampshire are very low, natural beauty abounds, the neighborly spirit is strong. All these things should be enhanced by a migration of likeminded Free Staters attracted by those qualities.

Another aspect of the "Free State Project of One" approach is to acknowledge that this is a long-run endeavor. Some people may take a few years to arrange a relocation around their own life plans. We should encourage people to do whatever's necessary to ensure that they can eventually make the move. I certainly applaud those who are moving now, and I know you're looked on with a bit of awe and respect by others, but at the same time, there's no reason to pressure everyone to do that. The FSP is a substantial commitment as it is.

So in short, I think to get our next 14,000 participants, we need to take a more free-market approach to recruitment. We have something to offer them, and they have something to offer us. We offer them the prospect of enhanced quality of living and for some, even long-run monetary rewards, and they can offer us their commitment to help make those things happen. By stressing these less tangible but very important rewards of participation, I think we can sell the FSP much better than by simply focusing on the political-strategy aspects that originally motivated the idea.

So that's all the serious stuff from me. Now go forth and enjoy yourselves!

Back to Essays

Trading Trash for the Pearl of Great Price

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.

Trading Trash for the Pearl of Great Price

by Nixicat Chesnavich

Just over two years ago, my husband Robert and I bought what was literally once an abandoned crackhouse in a bad neighborhood. Not only were we able to own a home for less than most people pay for a car, but we had this idealistic vision of being a force for good in our city.

We put in long hours of hard work reclaiming a house that by all rights should have been leveled, slowly turning it into a comfortable place to live. We bought a how-to book at Home Depot, and it became our bible for the next few months. We literally removed pieces of broken furniture from the walls and patched the gaping holes. The front yard was turned gradually from an impenetrable mass of shoulder high weeds into a slightly disorganized flower and vegetable garden. Other people in the neighborhood expressed shock that anyone had been able to save this house, and we had done it on a minimal budget and with no idea what we were doing.

We were certain that if we set the example, showed people that it could be done, that others would want to join us. There are around 70 abandoned houses in this and surrounding neighborhoods, and we really felt that young couples could be convinced to do what we had done and own their own homes rather than renting. We planned on going out and picking up the trash on the surrounding streets, to show people who had given up on this part of town that some of its residents still cared.

My plan was especially ambitious. I decided that the best way to help the little welfare-recipients-to-be develop an appreciation for capitalism and entrepreneurialism was to help them participate in it. I was going to start a privately funded urban garden on one of the vacant lots, and recruit local children to work in it for their own benefit. Each child would get a portion of the lot and instruction in how to make some kind of vegetable or flower grow, with the intent of letting them take home food for their families or to help them sell their produce at the local farmers markets. The idea was that they would come to value work, personal property, and their own ability to produce wealth.

I was taking the trash out the other night when I looked around my neighborhood and saw it much as it was two years ago. An abandoned car has sat on the street just a few yards away since spring. Another car hit it a few weeks ago, leaving the scene without reporting the accident. My husband has seen neighbors in a nearby apartment building tossing armfuls of garbage into the alley that we share with them from a third floor window.

And those lovely children I was going to teach to garden? Well, earlier this year, some of them tried to break into our basement through the window while making a candy bar sales round and discovering that we weren't home. Ironically, I believe they were selling candy for either their government school or for the after school program that is supposed to keep them out of such trouble.

And I just got a notice from the city that the "high weeds" in my front yard were a public health hazard, as they could attract rats. The high weeds were broccoli plants that were still producing despite the recent cold weather.

We are tired of playing martyr in a place that does not appreciate us. We have come to realize that the reason this neighborhood is so bad is that the people who live here like it this way. They enjoy living in rubbish-lined streets and depending on tax payer funded programs to save them from themselves. And honestly, it would be entirely unlibertarian of me to try to force them to live differently. Better to be a Porcupine, and leave them alone while I go tend to my business elsewhere.

My friends and acquaintances here in Pittsburgh are mostly either socialists or politically apathetic. They break the laws that don't suit them, depending on their ability to not get caught to protect them from retribution, rather than making a stand for their own freedom. And they seem to like the nanny state that would punish them. Some have even said that they are glad that their activities are illegal, because it would be dangerous if people were allowed to do the things that they choose to do. Of course, they are responsible enough to be allowed to do such things, but no one else would be.

And so I realize that we are already emotionally divorced from this house, this neighborhood, this city. It isn't home any more, only a holding area where we may sit while awaiting the vote that will determine where our home truly lies. The very house that we put so much work and love into is no longer something in which we have any desire to invest my time and money. We will keep it at its current standards, and unload it to someone else without much sentimentality when it comes time to leave here for Free State.

That is how Rob and I have been referring to the state that has yet to be chosen: Free State. Every time we learn of a new affront to our liberty or a new program designed to help us if only we would sign over a little more of our autonomy, we just look at each other and say, "Free State!" We can't wait to get there.

We have begun to conserve resources that we might have spent trying to effect change here in this city, preferring to use it strategically in a place where people want our help. It is all about Free State now. All of our hopes and ambitions, all of our love, all was completely transferred to a place we have never seen before as soon as we set our names down as members.

I am planning my greenhouse for construction in some cold northern state. My coffeeshop will be a great place for some of us transplantees to meet and talk and work on political endeavors. I hope to take on a second job in the next few months to earn more money to eliminate our debts so that we can enter Free State with a completely clean slate and build such a life for ourselves.

We do not belong here anymore. We have both been craving a community of people that have enough courage in their convictions to make a serious gamble on them. I have found that in my fellow Porcupines. I would give my life for this hope that we can carve out a place for ourselves. And I think enough others feel the same way that I do that we have a real shot. Tears flow free down my cheeks when I stop to contemplate what we can accomplish if we only dare.

Perhaps because I was raised by Southern Baptists, much of my metaphor is derived from religious symbolism. I am reminded of the New Testament parable of the man who finds a field with a great treasure in it. He goes out and sells everything that he has, his every possession so that he can go buy that field, and thus possess the pearl of great price.

I feel as though I have been shown such a field, and my liberty is buried in it. My children's future is buried in it. The hope of my nation, of my forefathers, of our entire species rests in a little plot of dirt that we haven't picked out yet, and all we need do is have the courage and the wisdom to reach out for it. How could I make any choice but to give up everything that used to matter to me to claim so great a prize?

And I wonder how many others feel like we do. It is my hope that some who are sympathetic but have not yet committed to join us there in Free State will feel encouraged to do so by my words. And that those who have joined will be persuaded to redouble their efforts to recruit the rest of our future neighbors. We can only do this together, but together, we CAN do it. And we will.