Breakfast At Libertarian Summer Camp

The marketplace here is booming. Hundreds of people have shown up to spend the week. Many are drawn here by the Free State Project, which is trying to get libertarian-leaning folks to move to New Hampshire. You can buy just about anything you want at PorcFest — food, drugs, bootleg cigarettes or alcohol.

And you don't even need U.S. government currency to do it. Someone shows me a cash register stocked with tiny pieces of silver and gold.

Trying to give up the U.S. dollar means a lot of extra math. You hear it all day long. How much is silver? How many grams in an ounce? It's 8:30 in the morning, in the woods, and people are checking the precious metal prices on their cell phones. I go directly to the source. Down the hill, Ron Hellwig has set up a bank and a mint on a folding table.

Ron has invented these neat little laminated cards that contain strips of silver. He has basically created a silver-based currency with different denominations — 1 gram, 5 grams, etc.

How convenient! Instead of a paper currency with an agreed-upon value, you can just go an exchange that paper money for some rocks, or a piece of plastic with rocks embedded into it!

And who needs government regulation for food safety? If you eat his pork and get sick, you just don't have to buy it from him again (and if your kid dies from salmonella, well, you can always make another!)

He tells me proudly that, although he makes his living cooking, he has no permit to sell food. He's never been inspected. And he does not pay taxes. "I don't want them in my business at all," he says of the government. "If somebody wants to buy my food, it's between me and them."

www.npr.org...

That's a funny story. Looks like a bunch of campers who want to proclaim their independence from the government as long as they can still keep some convienences around of course.

Let them have their fun I suppose and we'll see em back at work on monday

Pretty cool, just like a music festival or rainbow gathering with the exception of mushroom chocolates being the most sought after currency

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


You are missing the point... His laminated cards are actually worth the value of the silver contained within them. Which makes them infinitely more valuable than any fiat currency.

You are also missing the point that these people have every right in the world to organize and start their own society with their own rules and currency. It is no different than your current government, just not as old.

The idea here is that people that go to these types of events do so with the full knowledge there is no government type inspection. If they wish to take the risk and eat that man's pork (hehe) than they have that right. Even if there is a risk the government has no right to step in. You are forgetting about something called reputation, this is all these types of vendors have. To risk it by selling spoiled or contaminated food would be economic suicide for him.

Not everyone needs the government babysitter that is regulation.

-Lightrule

Originally posted by 4Starlight2Decay0
Pretty cool, just like a music festival or rainbow gathering with the exception of mushroom chocolates being the most sought after currency

Except the Federal Government is so threatened by Rainbow Gatherings that they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to monitor, harass, and detain rainbow family.

Somehow i doubt they are as threatened by this handful of wanna-be libertarians.

Originally posted by Lightrule


You are also missing the point that these people have every right in the world to organize and start their own society with their own rules and currency. It is no different than your current government, just not as old.

Where have I argued otherwise?

You are missing the point... His laminated cards are actually worth the value of the silver contained within them. Which makes them infinitely more valuable than any fiat currency.

Really? "Infinitely more valuable"? Is that why they had to be exchanged for cash?

It's a gimmick. NO different than buying tickets at a state fair. They are just a proxy for cash.

I'm not arguing against the notion of a gold-backed currency. I'm mocking the tedious and entirely useless posturing here. If you dont see the difference, I suspect your own biases are preventing it.

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


Thankfully I've never been harassed by the police for attending festivals yet.

reply to post by Lightrule


Not to mention in the home crafting and DIY scene you will be outcasted for knowingly selling a shoddy product.

Why didn't they pick a warmer state for the free state project? New Hampshire is too damned cold for me.

reply to post by Lightrule


So your describing the big BBQ's we had on the farm back in Minnesota basically. Invite your neighbors over and kill and roast a pig. Except we were true liberals and didn't charge anything, everything was free.

It was a Utopia man.

police have better things to do, like tasering children or faceplanting crippled people on the sidewalk.

reply to post by kro32


Been there done that! They are fun arn't they!?

Now that you mention it I should get one going for this summer, got a neighbor I could buy the pig off and everything!

-Lightrule

Originally posted by Lightrule
reply to post by kro32

 

Been there done that! They are fun arn't they!?

Now that you mention it I should get one going for this summer, got a neighbor I could buy the pig off and everything!

-Lightrule

Was the pig raised without the use of price-controlled feed-crops like corn or soy?

If not, it's a socialist pig.

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


The part about this story that tickles me is this guy selling his 'government free' bacon is selling bacon and eggs that he acquired at BELOW MARKET VALUE due to government subsidies.

If it was truly 'government free', it would have been eggs he raised on his own, pork he raised and processed on his own, without buying it at an artificially low price at the grocery store.

Originally posted by randomname
police have better things to do, like tasering children or faceplanting crippled people on the sidewalk.

Don't forget nosing around in adult diapers.

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


HAHAHAHAHA! You know, I had better ask first... To be honest tho my neighbor only keeps around 10-15 pigs and about a hundred chickens, some for eggs and some for meat. Its his personal farm and not commercial, He does it because he can't stand all the crap in our food, so I think his animals are ok.

-Lightrule

reply to post by Lightrule


I'd be pretty surprised if they are 'okay'. 99% of the commercial feed in this country is USDA subsidized GMO corn and soy.

Your neighbor would be paying a pretty penny to buy stuff at actual 'free market' rates, or produce it himself.

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


I don't live in the US.

He owns more than enough land to keep his animals fed. All the bales he brings in come from his land and he has mentioned before that he processes his own feed by mixing his own crops together. I've butchered chickens with him and he even feeds the entrails and heads to the pigs... They eat anything, but he is pretty good about knowing what his animals eat.

-Lightrule

reply to post by Lightrule


wow. He's an over achiever, for sure. good on him. you're lucky to have him as a neighbor.