We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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The French are staying put in London Interesting story at Bloomberg saying that despite the blandishments of President Sarkozy, who is currently diverting the celebrity pages of the press with his amorous adventures, Frenchmen and women living in Britain do not want to return home to a land still hobbled by taxes and regulations.
They certainly cannot be staying in Britain for its weather.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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I chuckled at Perry’s comment on another post that he worries for the state of liberty in the US, because he would like to escape to the US should things get too intolerable here. I chuckled, because I kind of feel the same, and have considered the problem before: if things carry on getting worse here, where will I go?
In the modern world, international travel is more accessible than ever before. It would be interesting to follow the migration patterns of those who love liberty, and perhaps watch them making a break from the sinking ship that is the European Union, moving first to the last strongholds of liberty, before leaving the continent entirely.
To add to the above. I am actually looking into the possibility of studying in the US, economics at George Mason University, because I am a Hayek/Popper fetishist.
“Come back!” Sarkozy cried, “I am in the middle of proposing a internet tax, and a socialist from Lille just gave me a push bike, come back, we’ll have a ball”.
I am surprised that no one in that article mentioned the humble pub. When I lived in France I really missed pubs, and the drinking culture in general, not that the French don’t have it, they do, but it’s just different. They also have way to much red tape, and way to many middle men, especially in the home location business.
You can bloody say that again!
Lee-
Who knows, we may be entering an age wherein people cluster geographically based upon their meme tribes, rather than their genetic ones.
I have this little fantasy of all the libertarians moving to some currently impoverished African country (by consent of course). Thirty years later it’s a wealthy economic powerhouse of liberty, opportunity and equality for all, its model spreading across the rapidly developing Third World, while our satellites peering into the walled European panopticon relay pictures of the blighted inhabitants scouring the rubbish dumps.
Mind you, looks like we’d have to keep Lew Rockwell out. Ha.
Don’t rip me to shreds here, it’s only a dream.
…and against the tide of Frogs moving to London to escape taxes, we have Brits setting up entire mini-colonies in France, to escape… the weather?
Kim, possibly what’s happening here is that rather than people moving somewhere “better”, they’re simply moving somewhere else. As societies become less pleasant everywhere, people may believe the grass is greener in some other place simply because it’s a different place to where they are at the moment rather than because it actually is qualitatively better.
Also, as that guy who used to write Elton John’s lyrics put it: “Change is gonna do me good”.
Actually, the Frenchies could be in Britain for its’ future weather. If global warming keeps on happening, then British climate might become more like France!
But what is happening with the weather? No sooner do I learn that the West Antarctic glaciers are melting faster than expected, than I read the (good?) news that a volcano is to blame! There is a volcano under all that ice, which is now active. Does anyone know how to turn off a volcano?
I am sure Hilary can take care of that, once she is done curing cancer and autism.
Alisa, what happens if Hillary is NOT elected? Will she altruisticly stop the volcano, AND cure cancer and Autism? What will Obama promise?
Here’s another idea! Let’s see which candidate stops the galloping sub-prime crisis in its’ tracks, and vote for that person! Proof, not faith!