This has been reposted from The Daily Anarchist.

I’ve mentioned in an earlier post that I am in the beginning stages of creating a fully underground competing court system, the likes of which have never before been seen. And to the best of my knowledge its functionality has never before been written about either. It will only be unveiled once the website I am constructing is finished and can be presented to the public. I look forward to that day. A free-market in justice is probably one of, if not, the most important business institutions necessary to replace the state with natural order. I only hope that my business model will play a role in that transition. There are, however, other desperately needed businesses that will help facilitate the destruction of the state. If my time and resources were not limited I would fully develop the framework to start these enterprises, but as it is, I can only wait until others do so.

There are two businesses that I do not believe will ever get started until a fully functional and competing justice system is established. But once it does these institutions will soon follow. The most difficult will probably be banking. I believe for the free-market banking system to have any legitimacy and to prosper it must be completely underground. That is not to say they cannot advertise and have their name perfectly well known to the government, only that it does not obey or operate under any government regulations. Nor can it legitimately use anything other than commodity money as its sole currency.

The necessity for free-market banking should be obvious. It will help to facilitate loans, conduct efficient financial transactions, warehouse personal savings and a myriad of other functions all relevant to today’s modern economy. Its inner machinations, however, must remain completely secret. All banks possess assets highly sought after by criminals and the state is arguably the greatest criminal organization the world has ever seen. Even in absence of the state banks would necessarily take security precautions to protect the assets of its clientele. With the state in existence the security protocol merely operates at an inflated threat level.

The banks with the best reputation for security would likely garner a higher rating by its insurance company thus lowering its premiums, which would in turn increase the savings to its customers. The cost of each bank’s security coupled with its insurance premiums would create a pricing mechanism that each potential bank customer could use to better determine with whom to bank. A bank’s assets would necessarily be dispersed, it’s records encrypted and its headquarters, if any, would remain in a state of constant animation. That is to say, at least until the day the state is sufficiently weakened.

To suggest an underground bank is to imply an insurance company. Of course, insurance companies can encompass a great many sectors including, but not limited to, health, auto, banking, home and life. But until competing underground banking has been secured the operational structure of an insurance company must not resemble that of its current counterparts. It simply cannot store large amounts of capital safely.

A highly efficient management structure on the part of the company must transfer capital directly from the monthly premium payer to the insurance claimant without ever having passed through the company’s hands. This means that the total monthly claims would be added up and then divided unequally among the rest of the insured. Billing statements would fluctuate monthly depending on the total amount of the claims and the number of the insured. The individuals insured would pay a non-equal percentage of the total amount imbursed to the recipients of the insurance claims much as today’s premiums reflect the risk of the individuals insured. The fluctuation in monthly payments would begin to stabilize as the client base of each company increased. A static, or decreasing, billing amount would regularly be made to the insurance company for the managerial service it offers in coordinating the redistribution of funds.

With the nature of these businesses and the risks involved it will be imperative that they are run profitably and not just as activist ventures. Nor should one enterprise compete with the state alone, but with other underground competitors as well. The state will not destruct until until these enterprises, among others, are fully operational and institutionalized.

Home is where the heart is. That’s what I’ve heard. I think that perhaps one can’t fully understand that old saying until he loses his heart to a place. I have recently discovered this on a personal basis when I was able to spend a week camping in New Hampshire at the Porcupine Freedom Festival put on by the Free State Project. After my experiences there, I would say that New Hampshire has captured my heart. Certainly New Hampshire is a beautiful state, but nice scenery can be found in every state, even right here in Illinois. The inhabitants are what really make a place exceptional, and the people of New Hampshire and the participants of the Free State Project are exceptional people who exude the welcoming feeling one expects when arriving home.

One might ask, “What exactly makes the Free State Project participants so exceptional?” This is a legitimate question and one that might be a little difficult to put into words. I could write about attitude, but there’s more to it than that. I could write about acceptance and belonging, but that also wouldn’t cover it all. In fact, a combination of these things wouldn’t adequately answer the question. There’s something more here, something hard to put one’s finger on, something that needs to be experienced rather than discussed. The best description I can think of is to call it “heart,” but that also doesn’t seem to cut it.

FSP participants are the doers of the world. They don’t simply complain about the way the world works, they do something about it. And they don’t just write letters and beg their politicians to do something for them. While there is nothing wrong with this kind of participation in our system, it is not enough for many of these New Hampshire activists to simply voice their opposition to a law and depend on their representatives to do something. They will take action themselves. They will show up at the state house for important votes. Most importantly, they will say “no” and refuse to obey bad laws. Some will put their bodies and their property on the line in search for greater freedom, just like the founders of this nation did.

This is what freedom is about. It is the attitude that we should be able to decide for ourselves how to behave, so long as another individual is not harmed nor his property damaged. It is the attitude of respect to others that they know how to best live their lives rather than the attitude that there is higher power that knows best and should be forced upon everyone. FSP participants understand that in order to live freely, they must allow others to live freely as well. They understand that one should allow others the freedom to make their own mistakes so that they can learn. These are people who welcome you and wish you the best, but they also will allow you to live your life as you see fit regardless of how they may feel about the mistakes you might be making.

This doesn’t mean the people of the FSP are mean or don’t care about others. Indeed, they are likely some of the most generous people you’ll ever meet. They are likely to give generously to any charity they find worthy and have displayed their generosity when supporting the very activists who risk arrest by their civil disobedience protesting victimless “crimes” that harm no one. FSP participants are forgiving and will likely be there to pick one up after a mistake, confident that one who makes a mistake will have learned a lesson from it. The difference is, they don’t believe in one size fits all solutions to problems. They don’t believe in being forced to give to an institution that has proven itself to be a failure time and again. They think they should be able to decide where their charitable funds would be put to the best use. They believe, for the most part, in a voluntary society where human interaction takes place without the threat of force. They welcome anyone who shares this point of view.

Of course, I don’t speak for all people involved with the FSP. In fact, I speak only for myself and my personal impressions. Anyone who might be interested in experiencing for themselves what the Free State Project is about should visit their website, look into their movement and make arrangements to come to one of their events. They hold the Liberty Forum in March and Porcfest, which I recommend, in June.

This really is a movement that needs to be experienced to be fully understood. Should you go to one of the aforementioned events and/or should you decide to sign up to become a Free State Project participant, please mention my name when doing so. I’d love to win a golden porcupine as one who has influenced three others to sign up.

When I left New Hampshire to come back to Illinois, I didn’t feel as one whose vacation had come to an end. I felt as if I was leaving home. I felt as one who is saying good bye to his friends and family to go live in a strange and foreign land. Although I was returning to a place where I have people around me who care about and support me, I felt like I was leaving behind my kindred spirits. Maybe that’s the best way to describe the feeling I got from the FSP participants. They have heart and spirit. It shines with an inner light unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, a beacon in this ever increasing tyranny, and beckons me home. A week there was hardly enough. Hopefully I will one day go back to stay.

This is an illegal painting

The legacy Lincoln left this country after the civil war was not that he held the union together, but that he solidified in everyone’s mind for generations that leaving the union carried violent consequences. Like a battered housewife afraid to divorce her brutal husband, whenever any whispering of secession sneaks into public conversation someone inevitably says something like, “You can’t do that. They’ll just roll in tanks!” It’s never a moral argument or a pragmatic argument. These are the exclusive propriety of the secessionists. Always, it is an argument from catastrophe. Every American on some level understands the union is held together by military force.

Some recent Rasmussen polls illustrate what I’m talking about:

In February 2010 61% of voters nationwide said they don’t believe the government has the necessary consent described in the Declaration of Independence. 18% were unsure, and just 21% believed the government actually enjoyed the consent of the governed. 70% believe that government and corporations collude to hurt consumers and constituents and 50% say they felt random names selected from the phone book could do as good a job in congress.

In April 2009 only 11% of voters said they favored secession, and only 22% said they even believed states had a right to secede from the union. In June 2010 that went down to 10% in favor and 18% who believed states had a right to secede.

So, rounding the numbers we see about 6 in 10 Americans have demand for the product secession in the form of non consent, but only about 1 in 10 would actually buy the product. That’s a rough analysis, but it makes my point.

It’s just a fact, when you prohibit a product or service for which there is demand in the market it inevitably results in black market activity. What happens when independence is a crime? Only criminals will have independence. It is an inescapable law of nature; When force is overt, resistance is covert. If the American people are intimidated and afraid to publicly advocate secession, rising dissatisfaction with government will manifest in black market independence. So, in our analysis, 5 out 10 Americans do not consent, and do not openly support secession. Where’s the black market? I think I found it.

The results of a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) report were released that found (Brace yourself because it is painfully obvious), “When people believe the the taxes they are required to pay are reasonable and the political leaders tend to spend their tax dollars wisely, tax compliance rises, and vice versa.” I don’t know about you, but I’m sure glad tax dollars were spent on that research. When dissatisfaction with government raises, and independence is not an option, the black market response is tax evasion, or economic secession.

The report found that 25.6% of U.S. households were either “unbanked” or “underbanked” whatever “underbanked” means. They also found that the paper currency in circulation, meaning not held in deposit anywhere, has risen 13.3% in two years, while the growth in electronic payment methods should result in a decrease in paper currency and increase in digital currency. These signal an increase in cash only, untaxed, undeclared economic activity. The result being, according to the FDIC, that tax revenues at federal, state and local levels are falling significantly faster than one would predict based on the economic conditions alone. Increases in taxes and onerous regulations only further erode public consent, galvanize public support for secession, and further enrich the black market.

People generally conceive of the black market as the underground sale of “illegal” products, like selling raw milk in Amish country. But increasingly it’s not the product that the government objects to, it’s the transaction itself. It’s being called “the gray market.” Not quite black because the products are generally legal to sell, to buy and to consume, but not quite white, because the sale takes place in an untaxed, unregulated counter economy.

It’s called Agorism, which is a species of market activism more akin to a boycott of the state than to an armed revolution. For example, I make a small amount of money selling art. I work and earn money (minus income tax), which I imagine I own. Then I purchase raw materials (plus sales tax), which I imagine I own. I mix those materials with my time and labor (no tax), which I imagine I own. At the end of this process I imagine that I am the sole proprietor of the resulting product. So, if someone desires, I trade that product to them (no tax) at some small profit. The state imagines that it has some claim to that small profit, which means the state imagines that I am not the sole proprietor of my time and labor. They think they own me, and I disagree. So, I produce my product without any license, without any regulation, and without any taxes. I think I own myself, and this is a crime.

Whether people conceive of this activity as secessionist in nature, that’s precisely what it is. Consent is withdrawn, and the moral legitimacy of the state is questioned one dollar at a time. For many this is a conscious decision, but for considerably more this is born out of necessity. Many bay area flea markets now have family run cash for gold exchanges. In San Francisco increased taxes and regulations have made many restaurants insolvent, and many gourmet chefs now serve top quality food out of rolling carts in the street using twitter and facebook to advertise. Even though city officials have tried to regulate and tax this growing industry, many vendors find the permit process so complicated and expensive that they just don’t comply. When a permit to sell the products you own can cost you $10,000 who wouldn’t opt for the gray market?

For those inspired by these ideas, step one occurs right now. Right where you’re sitting now. Before you even finish this article. In your heart of hearts, join the 61% of Americans who don’t consent and make the intention to act upon that. Online tools like eBay and Craigslist make it virtually free to start. Joining the counter economy, and beginning your economic independence is as easy as getting paid to do what you love.

A fully saturated gooey masterpiece Photo illustration with photo by George "Mandrik" Skouras

Who doesn’t love baklava? That decadent Mediterranean morsel historically beloved by Byzantine and Ottoman alike. Made with paper-thin leaves of fillo dough, hearty walnuts, and golden honey, now this succulent homemade treat is available on the internet for home delivery.

Let me introduce George “Mandrik” Skouras. George began with his grandmother’s family recipe, brought over by his parents from Greece. Obsessed with the delicate nuances of flavor, he spent 16 years modifying that original recipe to produce his own signature ambrosia. From his premium ingredients to his anti authoritarian politics, George’s Famous Baklava promises to deliver a uniquely satisfying culinary delight.

George got his start hawking his wares in his family’s restaurant five years ago. Coming from a family of restaurateurs, George had long harbored entrepreneurial dreams for his desserts, but was discouraged by cumbersome government regulations.

In August 2009 he began listening to Free Talk Live, a New Hampshire based, liberty-minded, open line call in show. Within two weeks the ideas of a voluntary society clicked in his head and inspired him to begin selling his product online without begging for government permission as a form of civil disobedience. Every activist starts with a different level of risk aversion, and George calls this decision, “a small but important first step in the direction of liberty.”

By September George was selling on eBay and quickly met with great success. Now he runs his own online store. There’s a George’s Famous Baklava fan page on Facebook, he is now the official sponsor of the Wheels off Liberty podcast and his baklava was on sale at the 2010 New Hampshire Liberty Forum. Though he’s starting out small, his goal is to expand his business into a full time job.

So of course I had to try it.

I ordered three pounds (about 30 pieces) for just $20. Compare that to the leading online competitors. Figi’s Signature Baklava Squares are $17.99 for 1.25 pounds. Harry & David’s Original Baklava is $27.95 for just a pound. As soon as the seal on the box was broken the rich aroma permeated through bubble wrap, a plastic pastry container, and wax paper. The baklava contains over 50 layers of delicate fillo dough. It is filled with finely minced walnuts and smothered in decadent syrup.

To prevent the taste of walnuts from overpowering the other ingredients George grinds them extra fine, producing a dense tender texture with a much more balanced flavor. The syrup, which provides much of the flavor, is made from a premium quality blend of cinnamon and clove. George uses spices exclusively from Penzeys Spices which sells “true” cinnamon known as Ceylon, unlike the less expensive Cassia sold as cinnamon in grocery stores.

The true distinction George’s Famous Baklava has over his competitors is his choice of honey. Dissatisfied with typical clover honey, which is little more than a sweetener, George experimented with virtually every other variety from orange blossom to eucalyptus to find the perfect flavor. He settled on a locally produced buckwheat honey, which is much darker and gives the syrup an amazing deep earthy flavor. Sweet, but not overwhelming.

The finished product is not the flaky baklava you’re used to. It’s a fully saturated gooey masterpiece. A truly unique taste sensation. At last I found a permanent source for my baklava.

You may be asking how such top tier ingredients can be provided so inexpensively. George’s answer is Agorism, a species of market activism where one does business in an untaxed, unregulated counter economy. They call it the gray market. Not quite black, because the products are not illegal, but not quite white, because they don’t comply with government dictates. When all one needs is a good idea and the ambition to pursue it there is significantly less overhead. George produces his product free from licensing laws, free from regulation and free from taxes. He is free to harvest the fruits of his own labor without feeding the ravenous Leviathan, making it truly a labor of love. This translates directly to savings for the consumer.

There was a time not that long ago when all businesses began this way, but today the price of obedience to the State is cost prohibitive for many entrepreneurs. Indeed, it even renders many small businesses insolvent. So, it should come as no surprise that most existing market regulations were spearheaded by well-established businesses. Flavored cigarettes were recently prohibited on the grounds that they were more attractive to children. But in reality big companies, like Marlboro, pushed the legislation to regulate small competitors, like Djarum, out of the market. I guarantee you the recently passed health care regulations have more to do with establishing a health insurance monopoly than with benefiting patients.

For those concerned about the quality of an unregulated product, George encourages customers to view his perfect track record on eBay, and read his testimonials. Without government intervention the marketplace produces ratings systems for private businesses, like eBay ratings, Yelp, or Zagats.

A distinguishing characteristic of Agorists is their superb commitment to customer service, and George is no exception. He makes it easy to negotiate a personal touch. You can email George directly with special requests. If you are giving a gift you can have him include a personal message. If it’s for a special occasion you can order early and let him know when you’d like it shipped. With one customer who was allergic to walnuts George offered to bake a batch with a different filling. Because Agorists are people trading voluntarily with people, and not faceless corporations or intrusive bureaucracies, it’s even possible to barter with alternative methods of payment. For many, including George, silver is the preferred alternative currency.

For those out there inspired by these ideas, joining the counter economy is as easy as doing what you love. Find something you are good at and do it. Online tools like eBay and Craigslist make it virtually free to start. And web-hosting services like Host Gator provide innovative site building tools that make launching an online store easy.

The ultimate goal of Agorism is to grow this underground free market until it produces a free society were all interactions between people are voluntary, and people can live their lives as they see fit, so long as they don’t aggress against others. George admits that achieving a truly free society may seem like a pipe dream to some, but for George it’s the American Dream.

For more Information:

George’s Famous Baklava
Online store: www.mandrik.com
Email: sgapps123@gmail.com
eBay store: iqgee
Facebook: fan page

With economic downturn we can always expect crime to rise, which is accompanied by increased police violence. Combine the downturn with oppressive laws against non-violent behavior, and the result is even more oppression from the police organization. The laws are oppressive and cops apply said laws in violent and often DEADLY manners; therefore, the police organization is a violent and oppressive one. It is also a monopoly.

So let’s sum up:

The police are a violent, oppressive monopoly.

WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?! (I assume you have just shouted this after reading my badass Lost-style reveal that ends up being really obvious and mostly just makes you feel retarded.)

So, it follows that if someone wears the uniform of this organization (no YMCA jokes, please), they are members of a violent, oppressive monopoly. As such, they are to be mistrusted, avoided, alienated, and, for some folks, FOUGHT.

Now here’s my pickle. Not my penis, but pickle: like a problem that is sour and crunchy, and a giant stork is taking a bite out of it and grinning at you, and you have NO idea what to do next. That’s what I mean by pickle. NOT my penis. So stop asking me about my penis. Thanks.

So here’s my pickle: I’m an individualist, and as such I am in the weird position of considering cops as individuals when I meet them in society, which in my case is in food service. There are a couple cops in particular that I like. One seems mellow and laid back, the other seems stern but fair. I know a LOT of people that fit these bills. But these dudes are ALSO members of the aforementioned organization. The violent oppressive one. That’s bad: a fucked up conundrum.

Agorism offers a compelling answer to this dilemma. The main issue is that there is demand for security. The illusion is that the police are the solution to that demand. That’s partly true.  It is A solution, and it’s a really really really really bad one. Agorism looks to create the new within the shell of the old through counter-economics. Counter-economic activity is decentralized and bottom up trading occurring amongst individuals. This activity, even when unrealized, withdraws support from the power structure, thereby weakening it. Realized, it creates the effects of a mass movement without actually needing a mass movement. In short, agorism offers a viable way to compete with the police institution, and innovating to the point of rendering it obsolete. Engaging in true freed market activity is fertile ground for rapid social and industrial innovation.

For the practical reader I offer a few agorist options:

1. For the Randian survivalist: Buy some guns, dogs, and alarms. Good luck.
2. Trade amongst people you trust. Do you know someone who can work on an engine? Do you know a naturopath? A permaculturalist? A farmer? Working to create these networks of trade lay the groundwork for collective security via voluntary cooperation and mutual aid.
3. Abolish money (as we know it). Try to find any and all reasons to use cash, or better yet: nothing. Trading for free undercuts this fucked market by 100%. Fiat money is FUNDAMENTAL to the oppressive and violent institutions of civilization.

The agorist solution is to withdraw support and build voluntary relationships with those you trust. To answer the demands of communities through decentralized trading and mutual aid.

So be sure to commit an agorist act this week, and begin building the free society NOW in your own life. A society in which the “good” cops find a real place in community security, and the bad cops are held FULLY accountable for their crimes.

We lovers of Liberty are not alone — We The People. And so I am thankful that we have forums like FR33 Agents. We have blogs, we have Twitter, Facebook, Wave, torrents, and host of other media outlets with new outlets arriving all the time.

In fact it is through social networking, notably FR33 Agents, that I have seen just how large We The People really are. Jim Davidson pointed out that the number of people voting is eyebrow-raising close to the number of income tax forms filed. Others post links to articles showing how large the “unofficial marketplace” (or “shadow economy” or whatever) has grown in recent years.

We are not alone. Even if they don’t all call themselves libertarians or anarchists … if they are not voting, not paying taxes, and doing business within the alternative economy, they share a common enemy with us. Our enemy: the State.

It is easy to be discouraged. Violent. Angry. Despondent. … and then dependent. But then, this is what the political class wants of the private class. They want us to be soaked in negativity. Fear, war, sickness, mistrust of each other.

We battle that with trust, discussion, charity, and love. And today, we have many tools with which to do that.

What does the political class have? To start they have a dependence on negative emotion — so they are at a disadvantage already, both philosophically and spiritually. They also have a slow, bloated, and expensive apparatus called the State. Thus, the time has come for the New Great Experiment.

The following was originally published through AC on Dec 23, 2009. I wanted to share it here, especially after seeing so many others expressing similar hopes for the near future. Here’s to Liberty within our lifetime! Here’s to a new and much needed great political experiment.

Replacing the State with the Market

Almost a decade ago, some politicians lamented that while America was at war, Americans themselves were at the mall. There’s some truth to that, to be sure. I think a more accurate way to put it might be: while the Political Class is declaring war on everything from vaguely-defined terrorists, to a free-market … American private citizens are trying to peacefully live out their lives. It is my observation that what we have in the West generally, and in American culture specifically, are the makings of widespread American Agorism: a free people who have faith in the Market, and not in the State.

The American Democracy is on the way out. Not by violence, but by revolutionary and peaceful lack of participation. People are unplugging, so-to-speak, from the system. We Americans have a massive and widespread loss of faith in the politicians living in Versailles D.C.; while we do still have faith in the voluntary marketplace. This, despite the politician’s attempts to discredit free-market Capitalism. Let’s be honest about it, the average American will trust her hair stylist more than a politician any day of the week. The average American will trust a banker with his retirement account before any fool in Washington.

The entire Political Class has done a great job at only one thing: reminding We The People why our Founding Fathers staged a revolution against government in the first place. From taxing and spending, to gun control, to abortion, and everything in between, the entire Political Class has been unified in their hypocrisy, their elitism, and their willingness to employ violence and coercion to remain in power.

They are the plundering class, and we are the plundered. This fact was true in the days of our Founding Fathers, and it is true in our time. Our culture was built on suspicion of power, and a general contempt of the ruling class. Think about this: even those who call politics a “necessary evil’ are still acknowledging that it is, in fact, inherently evil. Our culture was built on revolution. As the American anarchist writer and speaker Voltairine de Cleyre pointed out in 1932, while criticizing the government school system:

To the average American of today, the Revolution means the series of battles fought by the patriot army with the armies of England. The millions of school children who attend our public schools are taught to draw maps of the siege of Boston and the siege of Yorktown, to know the general plan of the several campaigns, to quote the number of prisoners of war surrendered with Burgoyne; they are required to remember the date when Washington crossed the Delaware on the ice; they are told to “Remember Paoli,” to repeat “Molly Stark’s a widow,” to call General Wayne “Mad Anthony Wayne,” and to execrate Benedict Arnold; they know that the Declaration of Independence was signed on the Fourth of July, 1776, and the Treaty of Paris in 1783; and then they think they have learned the Revolution–blessed be George Washington! They have no idea why it should have been called a “revolution” instead of the “English War,” or any similar title: it’s the name of it, that’s all. And name-worship, both in child and man, has acquired such mastery of them, that the name “American Revolution” is held sacred, though it means to them nothing more than successful force, while the name “Revolution” applied to a further possibility, is a spectre detested and abhorred. In neither case have they any idea of the content of the word, save that of armed force.

Over 200 years ago, the Great Experiment successfully threw aside monarchy, and moved into modern party politics (aka “partyarchy”). The Great Experiment was indeed great because it allowed the evolution of Western society, tossing aside class restraints, shunning the possibility that a State would favor one religion over another, and scoffed at a centrally managed economy.

The Great Experiment also created a land free of government guarantees. In fact, people came here to escape the European lands of government guarantees against poverty to come to a the land where no such guarantees existed. We had no government trying to convince people of some “right” to education, medicine, food, clothing, or anything else. Yet this became the land of plenty. Why? Because unlike many other places around the globe, people here have been free to accumulate wealth … right up until the income tax earlier last century.

Why do we need the Federal Government?

What if you learned that about half of the American population doesn’t see a need to participate with the Federal State? Imagine that, at best, turnout for a vote in a major presidential election is about 50%. Consider that, at best, the number of people even bothering to fill out a Federal Tax Return is also about 50%. This means that half of the eligible population in the United States couldn’t care less about our so-called “civic duties” of income taxes and voting.

But this is exactly what is happening today in the United States. In 2004, one of the biggest turnouts for a major election, saw 122,294,978 eligible citizens bother to cast a vote. That’s a 55.3% turnout. 132.4 million individual tax returns were filed. It’s impossible to know exactly how many people are ignoring the income tax system; some people may file more than one, while some people file jointly. But we do know that 132 million is a very small number!

The 2004 tax year was followed by a bit of alarm. The Tax Foundation issued a warning that “the number of people living outside of the tax system is growing.” Why is this dangerous to the Federal Government? For the same reason that it was deadly to the Soviet State to have a continuous economic shift from the White (State-managed) Market into the Black Market. The more people traded for blue jeans, tractor repairs, food and clothing, and etc, on the Black Market, the more the Soviet State lost control over the people. Eventually the oppressive State lost all legitimacy and power, and it was peacefully eliminated.

In other words, this is not dangerous to the Private Class; only to the Political Class. And expect more of this. Already 2008 and 2009 saw more and more people vowing to deliberately report less earnings in an effort to move themselves into lower tax brackets, or to not file taxes at all. I saw people waving signs referencing Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged, announcing “I Am John Galt!” for the first time in my life in late 2008, and I saw even more in 2009 — both in the news, and with my own eyes. Reports have been in the economic news of more of the U.S. economy moving to the Black Market this year, as well.

A recent column on the growing Black Market economy in the U.S., Richard Rahn of The Cato Institute writes:

The evidence is unambiguous; governments cannot increase tax compliance and decrease the size of the underground economy by ever increasing and more onerous regulations. It is no accident that those governments that allow their citizens a high degree of personal and financial liberty, including financial privacy, and spend taxpayer dollars wisely, honestly and competently, have much smaller underground sectors than corrupt and oppressive governments. Washington, take note.

For the record, I do not believe that the ruling class in Versailles D.C. will take note. That’s an entire class of people who always believe that the correct answer directly involves the Federal State. Thus we have the need for a New Great Experiment.

It is time to allow for the next political evolution, and entirely replace the State with the Market. In fact the revolution has already begun. This is evidenced by the peaceful lack of participation in the elections, in the tax system, and in the White Market. It’s interesting to note that most of the participants wouldn’t call themselves revolutionaries; rather, they are individuals simply trying to make their way through life, support a family, operate a business, pay employees.

The Reason for the Revolutionary Season

When considering our New Great Experiment, we should ask this question: Why did our Founding Fathers think that a Federal Government was necessary in the first place? Keep in mind that this was in the days before telegraph. A major obstacle in maintaining widespread liberty was largely one of communication and logistics. The Founding Fathers knew that practical livelihood would include delivery of messages, communication between businesses over great distances, and the ability to rally local militias in the event of a major security threat. Thus, they created a system that included the U.S. Postal Service, the Commerce Clause in the Constitution, election of Representatives to meet our behalf. And, for security, they allowed for the central government to call upon a military when necessary. But we have no such needs today.

Do we need the U.S. Postal Service; or can we do just fine with FED EX, UPS, and e-mail? Do we need representatives to meet on our behalf; or can we do well with mass transit, and mass communication? Do we need Dept of Homeland Security and CIA and FBI and the whole slew of other agencies that we barely even know about; or can we do fine with local policing, and fire dept, and the host of private security, insurance, and defense firms available? We have something valuable and powerful that our Founding Fathers didn’t have 200 years ago: the Market.

I believe that those in our government know they have become increasingly irrelevant. The Federal State has outlived its usefulness. They know this, and that is why the politicians strain their vocal cords trying to give us a plethora of reasons why we should need them: Bird flu! Swine flu! Great depression! Islam! Homosexuality! This threat! That threat! But it falls on deaf ears. Half of us don’t even bother looking up. The other half wonder why they even bothered.

Already this century has marked the beginning of a New Great Experiment! An experiment where we walk entirely away from the Federal State. An experiment where lovers of true liberty can turn to a source of direct democracy, and allow the Markets to meet our needs. Because the Market is already in place, we can join those already participating in shunning the State. This century will be a century that is home to the Next Great Experiment: a completely Agorist society.

Sources:

“Fact on Policy: Tax Statistics for 2004 Tax Year.” Hoover Institution. 21 Dec 2009 .

De Claire, Voltairine. “Anarchism and American Traditions.” The International Anarchist Publishing Committee of America, Chicago: Free Society Group, 1932.22 Dec 2009 .

Kuhn, David Paul. “The Year of the Political Jackass.” RealClear Politics, 16 Dec 2009. .

Hodge, Scott A. “Number of People Outside the Tax System Continues to Grow.” The Tax Foundation, 9 June 2005. 21 Dec 2009 .

Rahn, Richard W. “New Underground Economy.” Washington Times, 9 Dec 2009. 21 Dec 2009 .

“Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960 – 2008.” Info Please. 21 Dec 2009 .

Lysander Spooner is most well known for his proto-Rothbardian analysis of the Constitution. While this literature is heavily cited throughout the Libertarian community (and I find it to be of the same intellectual caliber as the modern students of the Austrian School), I am not sure I consider it his crowning achievement; I remember Spooner for his ownage of the nationalized post-office (more on that later). He practiced both intellectual subversion of the state and economic subversion of the state. While intellectual subversion is very important – I highly value the literature – talk is cheap. Economic subversion actually has an effect upon our circumstances, where idle words do not. I believe that economic action is the always the most practical, often the only, way to solve any social problem.

Many methods of changing our circumstances have been employed. The Marxist approach is through indiscriminate and continuous violence. This extreme example provides a good first example of what not to do. Many historical examples show us that very little that is positive ever results from violent action. Violence is non-creative; it is pure destruction. There are only two functions which violence can perform: first, to transfer wealth between parties (this is done by government, and is prohibited to the followers of Natural Law), and second, to destroy that which is in someway destructive (this is allowed to the followers of Natural Law, as it is not “initiation of force”). Violence does not create. Societies developed along the lines of Cuba’s “eternal revolution” are like individuals stricken with anorexia, living off the fading opulence of former years. They are eaten from the inside without the stimulus of new growth. Any trace of violence within a society is like an intestinal worm, consuming the sustenance of the host. The history of violent revolution shows us that the initiation of force always leaves societies poorer, less organized, and less internally trusting and externally trusted. Those who speak in support of violence do it with the erroneous assumption that theft and compulsion can create prosperity. Prosperity my ASS!

Political entrepreneurism is a term I heard listening to lectures on mises org. It involves individuals, politicians, or lobbyists attempting to use government to realize an agenda, and it is essentially institutionalized violence. Political entrepreurism does not create anything; it accomplishes only the transfer of wealth (theft) or the suppression of competition for the well connected (an impediment to production and a drain on everyone’s quality of life). The destructiveness of it may not be overt, but political machinery is never creative.

And again, speaking and writing and appealing to the general public does not create anything either. While literature is powerful, it does not account for much until it is manifested in physical reality. The intellectual world exists purely for facilitating productive efforts in the physical world. All thought should have some functional goal in mind. I like Ayn Rand’s illustration of the faux intellectual class in her novels; it effectively illustrates this point.

Finally, the economic method of problem solving repeatedly proves itself to be creative in all circumstances. Lysander Spooner used an economic model of protest when he created his own postal service. This company was so successful that it forced the federal service to introduce the three-cent stamp. The government cannot stand hubris, so they eventually used the strong arm of the law to shut him down (robbing him of his accumulated savings). This was not before he made a point, though. He made the point that constructive action will always bring down, indirectly, those elements in our society that are not constructive.

We need only to be the best we can be, and the political entrepreneurs and the destructive wielders of violence will wither in our light. It was not any military action of the United States that brought down the Soviet Union; it was merely attrition and the steady march of freeman in doing what they do best, conduct voluntary exchange. Right now, I see companies like Ebay, Prosper, and E-Gold walking this walk. Just as monarchy and communism withered in the like of the United States, so will the United States wither at the economic subversion of a more free market enabled by technology. When it does, we will not have a power vacuum as exists in the middle-east, but we will have a flowering intellectual and economic community waiting to pick up the pieces. Have faith in voluntary exchange, and never stoop to the level of the government bureaucrats in using any other weapon against an opponent

agora (1) – n. A place of congregation, especially an ancient Greek marketplace.
agora (2) – n. A market free of forceable regulation, taxation, and government
(The) Agora – The aggregate of all such markets of any size.

95 Theses

1. Trade that is free, unregulated, untaxed, and unmonitored is the natural right of all human beings
2. In a voluntary trade, both parties receive more than they give up, otherwise neither would trade.
3. Nobody gets taken advantage of through mutually voluntary trade.
4. Taxation forces people to pay for things that aren’t worth the cost
5. Government regulation forces people to abstain from trades they would otherwise voluntarily make.
6. Markets collect, organize, and distribute information more rapidly, accurately, fairly, and efficiently than any central authority could ever do, even with superior resources.
7. Prices are information.
8. Force distorts market information.
9. Governments’ only means of action is force.
10. Governments operate blindly because they only see information distorted by force. The more information they gather, the less clear their vision becomes.
11. Aggression is a reaction to unpleasant or unwanted information. Its motto is “kill the messenger”.
12. A market is smarter than any of it’s participants. A government is stupider than most of its participants.
13. Governments require markets for their survival; markets thrive in the absence of government.
14. The more efficient a government is, the more dangerous it is.
15. Markets improve the material well-being of all people. Governments improve the material well-being of some people at the expense of other people.
16. Markets are more powerful than governments.
17. Human survival and well-being require free markets.
18. Human survival and well-being require the absence of government.
19. The best humanitarian aid that can be brought to impoverished people is to allow them access to the Agora, usually by removing their governments.
20. Productivity is the application of intelligence to labor for creating something of value to someone.
21. Labor is equivalent to value in the same way crude oil is equivalent to a vacation.
22. The non-productive have always and will always try to live off the value created by the productive.
23. The productive will by right decide how much, if any, to allow it.
24. Charity is offered and received face-to-face, or it is no longer charity.
25. Wealth is the natural and honorable reward from trading value for value.
26. Wealth is a store of productivity, not a store of value.
27. In the Agora, the wealthy have already given back far more than they received. That’s the only way to get rich in the Agora.
28. Those who get rich outside the Agora could never give back all they have taken.
29. Wealth has a short shelf-life, it dissipates when not used productively.
30. Money laundering is an invented crime, the concept cannot exist in the Agora.
31. Price gouging is an invented crime, the concept cannot exist in the Agora.
32. Unfair competition is either not one, or not the other, or not in the Agora.
33. Market price is an observation of history.
34. Market price is related to value in the same way news photographs are related to current events.
35. “Intrinsic value” is a lie told by parasites to try to steal from producers.
36. Fiat currency is theft by fraud.
37. Gold and silver are usually the bases for real money because they have properties that best serve that purpose.
38. Paper is the basis for fiat currency because it has properties that best serve that purpose.
39. Communication strengthens markets and undermines governments.
40. Markets are the way communities stay organized when they are too large for face-to-face interaction.
41. All resources are human. The term “human resources” is demeaning to the nature of both humans and resources.
42. Resources are what raw materials become by the application of human intelligence and purpose.
43. Resources are produced. Raw materials in the ground are not resources until they are brought to market.
44. Competition is not the purpose of a market, it is one of its methods.
45. Natural selection in the Agora is more Lamarckian than Darwinian.
46. Natural selection in the Agora does not destroy resources, it reallocates them.
47. Natural selection in the Agora does not kill people, it frees them to be more productive.
48. “Dog eat dog” is a feature of governments, not of markets.
49. Monopolies can only be created and sustained by governments.
50. Freedom to fail is every bit as important as freedom to succeed.
51. The Agora guarantees neither, and resists the perpetuation of both.
52. Markets don’t have goals, values, or ambitions. Markets are a tool for human beings to pursue those things.
53. “Market Failure” is an oxymoron. People sometimes fail to use markets properly.
54. Innovation is an inherently Agorist activity, even when it happens outside the Agora.
55. A primary goal of government is to restrain innovation.
56. The owners of private property tend not to destroy it. Commons are routinely destroyed or exhaustively consumed.
57. Agorist exploitation of the environment increases resources, and protects the environment. Government “protection” of the environment reduces resources, and harms the environment.
58. No species is endangered when it is owned. The best way to keep a species from extinction is to allow it to be property in the Agora.
59. “Public property” is an oxymoron, and privatization of profits is not privatization.
60. Property is authority. It’s not a market without private property and private authority.
61. Where there is private property authority, there is an agora..
62. Private property let open to the public is not a commons.
63. Shortages do not exist in the free market, government obfuscation of price information is the only way to acheive a general shortage.
64. Being unable to buy something at the price you want to pay is not a shortage.
65. Markets are, in part, a process of voluntary rationing.
66. Corporations are evil only to the extent they rely on government power. Corporations with a monopoly are branches of government.
67. Markets rely on trust. Markets rely on suspicion.
68. Individuals in the Agora expect suspicion and earn trust. Governments demand trust, and earn suspicion.
69. A government truly of the people, by the people, and for the people would have no powers whatsoever.
70. If the measure of virtue for a society is how it treats the least among it, then the Agora is the most virtuous society ever known to man.
71. Governments thrive on opposition, antagonism, provocation, confrontation, and defiance. What they cannot tolerate is to be ignored.
72. The central idea behind the Agora, and one of the things it does best, is to ignore governments.
73. The effectiveness of the Agora’s self-regulation is proportional to the extent to which external regulation is absent.
74. The Agora cannot be managed, controlled, regulated, or destroyed. It can only be interfered with.
75. Voting is nothing more than an expression of the voter’s preferred way to interfere with the Agora.
76. The Agora is a network, and like all networks, it routes around damage.
77. Government is damage.
78. Public education is an oxymoron.
79. One of government education’s primary functions is to instill fear of the Agora.
80. The Agora is all around you. It’s nothing to be afraid of.
81. The Agora is peaceful. Violence and war are results of failure to embrace the Agora.
82. Guns are often required to deal with people who operate outside the Agora, because guns are the primary way people outside the Agora operate.
83. The Agora does not require permission.
84. Anyone with the power and inclination to grant the Agora permission is a threat to all honest men.
85. Anyone offering the Agora permission will be ignored.
86. The Agora ignores creed and color.
87. When it comes to markets, black is beautiful.
88. Wherever there are human beings, there is an agora. It may be hiding, but it is there.
89. The Agora is a select community – the strict qualification for membership is to want it. Most people don’t.
90. The Agora does not recognize borders or artificial boundaries. It is everywhere, and it is no where.
91. The Agora welcomes you, but does not need you.
92. You need the Agora. Even if you oppose it, you benefit from it.
93. An Agorist movement is an oxymoron. Agorism is the natural state of humanity.
94. Practicing agorism is the only way to achieve agorism. Isolated networks will eventually find each other.
95. Governments are on notice the world over: your days are numbered.

NOTE: This has been modified slightly from the version posted at the Fr33 Agents social site. Details of the changes are in the comments there.