From: Dejan Vucinic (dejan@mit.edu)
Date: Sun Mar 09 1997 - 19:45:25 MST
>> Would you "put your money where your mouth is" and actually move to a
>> libertarian colony?
Greg:
> This question has been discussed before, with some acute insights from
> Robin Hanson, if memory serves. The problem is one of relative benefit
> and cost. Immigration to a "new society" will have costs associated
> with it for specific individuals. The more economically and socially
> established and successful an individual is in the "old world", the
> less favorable an immigration decision will be. Likewise, the more
> economic opportunity and liberty is available in an "old world"
> society, the less favorable an immigration decision will be. A review
> of the character of phases of immigration to North America reflects
> these factors starkly.
> In practical terms, these factors mean that the new "libertarian colony"
> has to offer significant relative advantages to entice immigrants from
> the "old world". They also mean that the immigration decision will be
> evaluated differently for differently-situated inhabitants of any
> specific "old world" society. The paradox is that some of the people
> that a "brave new (libertarian) world" will want most to attract are
> the ones with the highest threshhold to overcome in this equation.
On the other hand, the new libertarian colony can use the proven
and immensely successful "academic" strategy. Not many people would
just emigrate to a place where they have no ties of any kind. A free
education will create those ties, and the mentioned barrier becomes
negligible---who wouldn't spend a semester or two in an exotic place?
In other words, create a place one wants to return to, not escape to.
Regards,
--dv
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:44:15 MST