Dear friends—Obviously I wrote this series to be read from Book 1 to the end, but silly me! Readers often begin with what sounds interesting to them. This may leave them unaware of the characters, my friends and I. So let me introduce them. We were boyhood friends, as wild and as close as geese heading south for the winter. But our university educations split us philosophically like a drop of quicksilver hitting the floor. But like those balls of mercury, when brought together, they again become one. As have we.
Ray became a Catholic priest and moved far to the right of where our teenage liberalism had bound us. He calls himself a neo-conservative. We think he is a reactionary.
Lee slid to the left of our adolescent leanings, and somewhere along the line became an atheist. Lee is a lawyer.
Concannon, Con for short, retired from his very successful business. I guess his business experience moved him a bit to the right, to conservatism—a conservative just to the right of the middle.
Then there’s me. I think I’m pretty much a middle of the roader—except for my passion to save our planet by reducing our population before global warming, massive poverty and far-reaching famines decimate our humanity. Hope this introduction makes our discussions make a bit more sense.
By the way, as most of you know, we have put our photos before every bit of dialogue. This should make you more familiar with us. So the books read more like plays. Since most of you read the books in PDF or EPUB format it is no problem. But if you read them in RTF or TXT you will probably lose the photos. This will make the transitions of the conversations more difficult to follow. LG
Table of Contents
FREEDOM--RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
WHAT IS THE BEST GOVERNMENT?
SOCIETAL POSSIBILITIES
ECONOMIC SUCCESS
ECONOMY AND GLOBALIZATION
IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP
OUR DEMOCRATIC VOTING
NO WELFARE STATE
TAXES
ACCUMULATED INCOME
EDUCATION
LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS
THE ARTS
SCHOOL SPORTS
ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS FACTORS IN A SOCIETY
SOCIAL CLASS AND ETHNICITY IN OUR COUNTRY
WHAT IS SOCIAL JUSTICE?
MEANING OF DEMOCRACY
SOCIAL CONSCIENCE
FOUNDING FATHERS
WHICH OF YOUR 'RIGHTS' AID REAL FREEDOM?
LIBERTARIANISM
THE HISTORY OF PUBLIC BORROWING
RELIGION AND SUBSIDIES
CHARITY
LAWS ARE FEW BUT WELL ENFORCED
EXAMPLES OF OUR LAWS
GUNS AND GUN CONTROL
FREE SPEECH
EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT
SMOKING
RELATIONSHIPS
PARENT LICENSING
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
ELDERCARE
LEGAL SYSTEM JUDGE MADE LAW—NOT JUSTICE
LAW ENFORCEMENT
THE BEST FORM OF GOVERNMENT?
It was an eight hour flight from Indus to Freedomville, the capitol of the United Colonies. The Colonies was a rather new country by international standards. It developed as citizens from one of the larger countries became much more vociferous about having freedom in their lives and minimum government. So part of the larger country seceded from the original nation. It was done without warfare, using only the ballot box and public opinion to develop the need for a new nation-- a nation founded on the principles of a limited government and libertarian freedom. So far the country has not experienced the problems that the US did in Civil War or that India did in its partition.
There was an orderly crossing of boundary lines for those who wanted a 'nanny' government that was taking care of them from cradle to grave and those who wanted more freedom and a laissez-faire capitalism of free enterprise and a very limited government. This seemed to be what the American Tea Partiers of 15 years ago seemed to want.
The confusing calls for liberty and equality in the American and French revolutions gave rise to people expecting both. The problem is, as political scientists know, that to the degree that you have one, you reduce the other. If people are free to develop businesses that make them a lot of money, the equalitarians want to tax them back toward financial equality through income and other taxes. They then use the money to give to the underclasses who have not been able to keep up. They do this with socialized medicine, required pension saving, and other welfare state measures geared to take care of those who can't take care of themselves. Our next trip will be to such a country. Northland is a Scandinavian country with principles based on equality. I’m sure we will find huge differences between the equalitarian country of Northland that we will visit in a few weeks and the Libertarian country that we are about to visit.
Throughout history we have seen that most societies were unequal. It was usually the survival of the fittest. Then the fittest passed on their superiority by blood and we had monarchies. Then God blessed the kings by giving them the divine right to rule. Or in the more modern countries it was money, passed along with the power that it brings, that gave an aristocracy of 'argent.'
The 18th-century revolutionaries didn't like the behavior of their masters, so they pleaded for equality. Their pleas prodded the peasants to pick up their pitchforks and rifles and eliminate the kings from their lives. Whether by guillotine or guns, the peasants won and their educationally accomplished leaders replaced nobles and the modern republics were formed.
At first freedom aided the businessman and farmers. Lower taxes and the rise of the 'natural aristocracy of men,' as Thomas Jefferson had predicted, produced the capitalists of the industrial age. But the revolutionary call for equality was heard from the pulpits, the sweat shops and the slums. As the 20th century grew into adolescence the call for equality again reared its head and unions forced industrialists to bow, if not to kneel. Equality was making inroads but it needed the government's long arm to sanctify the push for economic equality. As the 20th Century matured into middle age social equality became more of a reality with Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King-- each tilting the American society toward equality. In India Mohandas Gandhi sought not only independence from its British oppressor but also a social equality among Indians. In Europe the welfare state reached its highest levels, particularly in Scandinavia. In China Mao led his revolutionaries for economic and social equality.
But if there is, in fact, a natural aristocracy among people--those who remained down as others worked upward objected to their reduced riches and status. So the call for liberty, particularly economic liberty, became louder. Some capitalists just picked up their marbles and went to more friendly economic lands. But many more used their riches to change the laws in their favor. This was particularly true of the tax laws. The Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch of the U.S. are notable examples.
As one might expect, allowing for the equality of the masses costs huge amounts of money. And one might also imagine that when the people with economic liberty are not paying enough taxes to support social and economic equality, something has to give. And we all know what gave. Rich individuals and countries lent money to those countries that were considered good risks. The politicians then saw an easy way to make both sides happy
, just borrow! And as we all know, the recession of 2008 uncovered the political reality that at some point the piper must be paid.
As we saw, the equalitarians began losing some of their sickness and pension benefits and even some of their educational rights. The free enterprisers, too, were forced to pay more in taxes. Both sides had to begin to pay for the free rides they had been given. Here in The United Colonies the call was to foster liberty and forget equality. The reason we are here is to find out just how they are doing it now in 2025.
-"Well guys we have our baggage, now we have to look out for Tyler Walls, the governor's right-hand man. He is supposed to pick us up. That must be him with the sign showing Gulliver bound up by the Lilliputians. Some sense of humor!
“Are you Mr. Walls or are you a representative of King Bomba?"
"I would assume that the king is off with his Lilliputians trying to catch another giant!
“You must be Gulliver, I mean Commander Gulliver. Nice to finally meet you. I’ve been following your exploits for years. Well anyway, welcome to The United Colonies. Follow me men, the car’s right over here. I’ll get you to your hotel and pick you up in the morning and we can start our physical and political tour of our country.
We bedded down comfortably and slept well. At breakfast we were to meet Tyler again. We chowed down on the huge buffet breakfast and were ready to go by nine. Tyler was there to meet us with a minibus. We jumped right in with our questions about the libertarian country we were about to visit. After the modern countries of Kino and Singaling and the poverty-stricken state of Indus, we were eager to see a quite different, and I might say a selfishly directed, country.