By Russell D. Longcore
Slashing Government in FRONA is one of the very reasons for its existence. As I’ve said before, you must think differently about how The Free Republic of North America will operate. Pretty much everything you know about governance in a constitutional republic has been thrown out in the FRONA Charter.
Let’s consider some of the government we would NOT need in FRONA.
FRONA is a nation, not a confederation of nations or states. It is comparable to France, or Germany, or China, or Brazil or any number of nations you might name. Some have suggested to me that FRONA might be like Switzerland, but that won’t work. Switzerland is a confederation of Cantons, which are like small nations. The Free Republic of North America is a single sovereign nation.
Consequently, there is certainly ONE governmental entity here in America that will be unnecessary in FRONA.
That entity is the County. Most nations of the world do not have counties. America has counties because the English had counties. But in FRONA, county government is a redundancy and will be eliminated. Think about all those county employees, from the County CEO to the Judge to the Sheriff to all the bureaucrats to the Dog Catcher. They will all be out of a job in FRONA.
Remember that in FRONA, there is only one form of taxation, the 10% national sales tax. That tax funds every governmental function, from top to bottom…from Treasury to your local Dog Catcher. (Now wait a minute. In FRONA, is a government-paid Dog Catcher even necessary? The Free Market can provide this service better and cheaper than government can.) OK…no Dog Catcher. But you get my meaning here.
Another good example of government redundancy and waste is Law Enforcement. The FRONA government does not need to have a monopoly of armed force that has officers all the way down to the rural level. It is axiomatic that police agencies in America today do not “protect and serve,” but are the revenue agents for the various levels of government. Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) today prey upon the citizenry, issuing citations as often as possible for traffic infractions, DUI infractions, etc. And LEOs certainly do not protect citizens, unless a LEO is actually on the scene when a crime is being committed. Even then, the LEO is under no obligation to protect a citizen. In Warren v. District of Columbia [1] (444 A.2d. 1, D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1981), the federal court stated that a LEO has no duty to protect a citizen. In most cases of crime today, police officers show up to document what has already happened, not to prevent or stop crime. Think about all the recent mass murders in America, like Colorado and Connecticut. Once the police arrived, they mostly just milled around outside the venue. Then they mostly just documented the evidence left by the perpetrators.
Consider for a moment a woman who gets a Restraining Order from a court regarding an abusive husband or ex-boyfriend stalker. There is no effective method of enforcement of this order. LEOs are not bodyguards, and so she is on her own. How many stories have we read about women murdered by an Ex with a Restraining Order in place? So here is another problem with Law Enforcement that needs a free market solution.
So, if FRONA only needs a national police force, something akin to the Texas Rangers, then all other policing can be done by the free market. That means most Law Enforcement Agencies, from County to City to Village, will be unnecessary and will be eliminated. Let me give you an example of how it could be effectively accomplished.
In FRONA, there would be a market demand for security patrols. Seemingly overnight, private security companies would spring up that offered service to individuals and businesses for a fee. Since you aren’t getting taxed to death by FRONA, you will be able to choose the level of fire and security protection that YOU are willing to pay for. Or, you can “go commando” and pay for none…your choice. But if you choose the “none of the above” option, there will be no one at the other end of the phone when you call for help. But if you’re OK with that, fine. No one FORCES you to pay for something at the point of a gun.
Speaking of guns…some have expressed horror at the mere suggestion of the elimination of most police agencies. But as John Lott proved in his epic book, “More Guns, Less Crime,” violent crime rates plummet when more individuals possess and CARRY firearms. And in FRONA, anybody can carry any type of weapon openly anywhere at any time. So, what do you think a bad guy would do if he entered a bank with the intent to rob it, and saw two or three customers in line with firearms on their persons in plain sight? No bank robbery is what would happen! Do you think that there would EVER be a hijacking on any commercial aircraft leaving from a FRONA airport when many of the passengers were “packing”?
Yet another unnecessary government entity is your local Fire Department. Private fire companies can provide comparable or superior fire protection services. So, In FRONA, no more government-employed fire fighters. But all those fire fighters would likely immediately get jobs with the private providers.
Another method to fill this need is this: Insurance companies have a vested interest in crimes against property. The insurance industry could underwrite (pun intended) the cost of fire protection and local security patrols. They would have approved vendors, just like they have approved body shops to repair vehicles damaged in accidents. The cost of the fire and security would be included in the premium for any property insurance policy.
The Free Market can provide most services that the population of FRONA needs.
I contend that the government of FRONA will be so small that the national sales tax may generate a surplus, which would result in shareholders in FRONA getting a dividend check at the end of the year. Eventually, the sales tax might be lowered to the percentage that balances FRONA’s revenue requirements without significant surpluses and dividends.
Doesn’t FRONA sound cool? Don’t YOU want to live there? Can you handle this much freedom?
Secession is the only solution for individual liberty and property rights on the North American continent.
DumpDC. Six Letters That Will Change History.
Copyright 2013 Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
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A couple of thoughts on private police and fire services, private fire services have a marginal track record . They can work (Arizona has them now) but in times of economic stress or widespread poverty (there will be some poverty in FRONA) they can create pretty serious gaps in fire protection.
Not so much for the individual, thats obvious but for the broader sense of property. If coverage is inadequate fire can overwhelm fire services, especially profit based concerns with an incentive to cut costs.
This is part and parcel of why after the great Chicago fire, so many localities decided this was better handled by the State.
Also re: private police. A question for you. How is legitimacy going to be maintained?
One assumes that there are few laws in FRONA but laws on homicide and theft and fraud and such will remain. yes ?
So lets say someone accuses me of harming them. I refuse their police access and call my company. They being rivals of the other firm show up and after that what?
All of us are armed and I have a strong incentive to kill them . They can kill me certainly or my men , if eiher side fights but thats dependent on how much the guys are paid , how loyal they are and how powerful I am.
A poor guy? They just shoot me or shake me down (pay off Mr. Jones and their won’t be trouble” guilty or innocent doesn’t really come into play.
Middle? We’ll they have to decide if I’ll trigger the automatic machine grenade launcher I have on my house or play along
I am rich? They leave me alone on account of my resources for retailation are too great.
And we do have examples of such societies. Early Iceland ran this way and it was for the most part, unpleasant and violent for everyone,.
I suspect that FRONA would work much the same.
And yes persons of high moral character could live there, I could, you could, A lot, the vast majority could not.
Even L. Neil Smiths Probablity Broach (a society that looks a lot like FRONA if you haven’t read it) struggled with it and used a reputation metric and resorted to actual biological differences in the people in the Libertarian society to most others in ours . Reality isn’t so easy as that.
http://www.bigheadpress.com/tpbtgn for the online illustrated version which is quite good,.
I think you might be better served by charter limitations on legal actions and laws and a more standard police force. The 10% sales tax would cover that
That being said, the urge to Dump DC sound better every day. Keep up the good work!
I think you raise a good point, AnotherAnon.
Law enforcement is one of only two legitimate purposes of a just government. Doing away with it would guarantee mafia/tribal war; increased crime – especially extortion; and lesser/absent protection of natural rights.
Jefferson was right when he said that “the price of libery is eternal vigilance”. There’s no way around it, and there’s no shortcut.
Government run law enforcement can also end up dissolving the Rule of Law, fostering corruption and extortion, and failing to protect the rights of the citizenry; but there’s a solution built into a constitutional republic which allows for correction of this from the top down. The “top” being a VIGILANT citizenry. If, as in the U.S., citizens cease being vigilant, and fail to hold their government to account; then not much will help them other than the establishment of FRONA 2.0 …. or FRONA 3.0 … or … etc.
Americans are right now reaping the fruits of falling asleep on watch. Permanently eliminating the legitimate law enforcement function of government won’t help. (though eliminating the ILlegitimate use of force by CURRENT government couldn’t hurt)
Somebody didn’t READ the article carefully, and/or has not read the other articles in the Archive on FRONA. Of course there is Law Enforcement in FRONA. One of my points is that in FRONA, the citizens will not be buried under a mountain of ridiculous laws and statutes. There will be a national Law Enforcement Agency like the Texas Rangers. But in Texas, a state of over 24 million people, there are only about 200 Rangers. Learn from this. I do agree with you that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. But, when you as a citizen of FRONA must vote on EVERYTHING, I’ll bet you’ll take the time to be informed. Thanks, Russ
One of the biggest benefits of law enforcement is preventing the minor things like public intoxication, littering and vagrancy that drive better people away from a city. To prevent this, cops need to be “on the beat” so to speak. There may only be 200 Rangers in Texas, but how many city cops and Sheriff’s deputies are there? The Rangers are Texas’ State police and have a limited function, if they were to become the only law enforcement, they would have to recruit thousands more to fulfill all of their duties.
Mr. U: Really? Just where in America do cops prevent public intoxication? And listen to yourself. You accept laws that penalize a person who is drunk in public. Has that person injured another person? Has that person caused financial damage to another? No…he’s just drunk. Private peace officers can help keep the peace. But why does this need to be a law issue? The free market can handle this, just like I wrote in my article. Russ
They don’t anymore, that’s part of the general degeneration of our society.
As for penalizing a person for being drunk, a certain level of behavior is required to create a high trust society. having loud and obnoxious drunk frat boys wandering around downtown will turn families off from shopping or going to the park.
I don’t see how private security would be all that much different from regular police, except that the guy who pays their salary interprets the law. I would bet you and I would have considerably different views of what’s acceptable public behavior. The point of good laws is to check human nature’s worst inclinations.
I have lived in small and large communities in South Texas with everything from volunteer Fire Departments to highly trained and mechanized Fire Departments.
Over the years, I have marvelled how everything from wealthy neighborhoods to poor slums burns either to the ground, or is burned so substancially that the dwelling is un-usable before the Fire Department can put the fire out.
My conclusion is, why should anyone have to pay for fire “protection” when any fire destroys everything anyway? I agree with the author, if you think fire protection will help you, then you can pay for it. The rest of us can go “commando”.
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I live 50 miles west of Austin, TX. Our Fire Department is 95% volunteer and operates just fine.
As long as there is adequate social capital it works fine. We had them where I grew up. Do note that its a non paid State job though with universal coverage .It wasn’t private fire insurance
In concept I would agree, however, in consideration of human nature, I see no way it could. We were told by our Founders that we had to remain a moral people for our Constitution to work. Look where we are now.
FRONA would require even and even more moral since there would be even less to control the evils that men, through human nature, are prone to.
How would you deal with that? I would love to hear your response as the ideas you present are certainly thought stimulating.
My Lord- Please allow your mind to wander a little bit farther down the rabbit hole. In FRONA, there are no Federal (national) pork programs in which the parasitical class can gain a mouth-hold. The leeches will either become born-again free marketers or move out of FRONA. It will be too uncomfortable for leeches to live there. And there is still a large remnant of moral individuals in America that will stream into FRONA to live and work and dream. Just because FRONA exists somewhere in America will draw the moral minority like an electron magnet. We will most assuredly pick the cream of the American crop. Thanks, Russ
And the fact that in FRONA, everyone is armed. The scum would be eliminated pretty quickly. But you have to admit, the psychopaths, like who run this country would still emerge from time to time and have to be taken to the woodshed. Evil around us is really hard to rid oneself of.
Hi Chuck- Everyone WON’T be armed, but anyone who wants to be CAN be. Lots and lots of people will not carry, but those of us who want to will. And I disagree with the “scum” comment, which sounds like we’ll all shoot them. WRONG. The free market will simply dry up their sources, and they will go where there are resources. Think about your dog. If you dog has fleas, you put flea treatment on the dog. Fleas find it an unpleasant environment, and they go find a dog that has not been treated. I don’t want the undesirables dead…I just want them GONE. Russ
“I refuse their police access and call my company. ”
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You will be banished from the community, merchants and others will refuse you service, soon you will move on, but your reputation will follow you, you won’t escape, you will face justice and if you are wrong you will pay, and if not you will be re-welcomed to the community.