Ludwig von Mises
An interesting comment from reader John that provides some interesting insights and possible sources/books/authors for other readers to explore:
The Vandals Crown is an excellent but a bit dated book that I believe has stood the test of time just as well as the Sovereign Individual in understanding where we are and where we are going. I believe that Monty is right about the Sovereign Individuals authors too.
I believe that both of you are right in your diagnosis, but what incentive is there for a government to provide fiscal prudence, a rule of law, property rights, and regulatory certainty in an age of moral relativism and omnipresent statism? In our UN, oozing toward a world government planet, there is a movement to centralize and not decentralize power. Living in either a socialist, communist, fascist, or Peronista “paradise,” is as odious a choice to liberty lovers as deciding which form of execution the condemned man must select.
There are a number of small states that have expatriate potential, and the both of you mentioned two that are plausible, Panama and Costa Rica, where one could keep your head down to try and ride out the looming economic storm. You are not the first to discuss this.
Jim Rogers first looked at China and now is living in Singapore. Based upon Jim’s record and his prodigous travels that are well documented in his books, if there is a “Galt’s Gulch” out there, he would have located it by now. I suspect that Singapore is the place that he will be hanging his hat for a while. However, Singapore is so tiny that it could easily fit into any average sized American county, and leave a lot of room to spare.
Sadly, history is filled with examples of national financial storms where the prudent and responsible were fleeced. Look at Weimar or almost all of the last century in Argentina, and most of the rest of S. America for instance. Albert Jay Nock wrote that “…someone should write an essay on how one would know that one was living in a dark age.” This is as timely today as it was when Nock wrote this over half a century ago.
Since the upcoming financial storms will be international and not simply national in scope, this turmoil will be unique as a flock of Taleb’s “Black Swans” splash down in front of us.
There needs to be a “librarian(s),” to make sure that when the darkness arrives and the lights go out, that the vestiges of the potential that is 21st century life can be preserved so that eventually this informational foundation can be restored. Even as the Great Recession continues/worsens, the technology in a number of exciting and interesting areas continues to develop. I am optimistic that biotechnology, nanotechnology, and expanded uses for composites and other new materials will all provide new and exciting products that will be hard to keep off markets within the next decade (I am a bit of an optimist) despite the destruction of central bank’s paper and a collapse in most of the world’s division of labor.
I believe it was Mises, or his successor Rothbard, [Monty's Note: Attributed to Mises although never actually documented] who pointed out that government was the only one who could take two valuable commodities, paper and ink, and combine them so that they would become virtually worthless and eventually the world will realize that government control over currency through central banks is as ridiculous as government ownership of the means of production.
I’m going to go the provocative route here and suggest parts of Scandinavia. It may be wishful thinking since I’m from that part of the world (and would like to be able to stay). Assuming that we experience a scenario that is not an annihilation of civilization, but still very, very bad (TEOTWAKI as they call it), there are a few good things about Scandinavia :
- Not densely populated, and there is a tradition and culture that still to some extent favours self-sustainance (at least in rural parts).
- The terrain is not very friendly, sure – there are roads to every major and minor town, village, or group of houses, but there are vast regions where there lives almost no one at all.
- Despite the problem of an irresponsible immigration policy, the majority of these problems exist in a few large urban areas. Out in the country-side, people are the way people have been, and any newly arrived people will be forced to assimilate rather quickly
- Natural resources are decently plentiful, lots of forest, good agricultural land in southern Sweden, fish in the ocean, and so on.
- Location is far from the rest of Europe, the only neighbour that could be problematic is Russia (as has been the fear for the last century).
The downpart, of course, is our massive socialist welfare states. The collapse of these will make bring unrest, for sure. But if my thinking is correct, while the urban population may scream for government to “do things”, and raise taxes etc., the rural population is more likely to frown, do some ugly cursing and go back to not caring about regulations as long as they can get away with it, and not pay taxes as long as they can get away with that. And from that point of view, we have one thing going for us : It is more or less impossible to police areas that are scarcely populated, consisting of people who mostly like to be left alone.
Maybe I’m just hoping too much, but for now, “going rural” will have to be my option of choice. I feel bad for those that have children to take care of – their future may not be so bright as one would hope….
I think that if we were looking for a place to move to when the catastrophe comes, where western civilization could be sheltered and revived, we would need to look to Alaska or the western Canadian provinces, particularly Alberta. The problem with those mentioned in the article is that they lack one critical thing, natural resources. Additionally, they are in too close proximity to barbaric anti-conservative hordes. A few hundred thousand conservatives flooding Alaska could demand independence and the weak federal government probably wouldn’t be in a position to forcefully stop it. A few hundred thousand in Alberta could simply vote for independence which the Canadian constitution allows. Both states are very rich in natural resources and would provide the basis for a conservative revival.
I’ve always thought it would be neat if some billionaire conservative bought up some enormous tracts of land in one of these places, parcelled it out in small tracts and sold it now so that us middle class conservatives could buy a patch of land while we still have resources to do so. Ultimately this could lead to us becoming voting citizens and enact what I described above.