New Hampshire ISN'T the most libertarian, Austin, Texas is.

[Anti Federalist]

^^ this. I think states like Montana, CO, OK and Arizona have many advantages, and the people are more the rugged individual type -they are the true sleeping giant. I thought about NH, but I'm not anarchist enough for many, and really haven't been too impressed with some of the free state projects antics to gain attention. The Ron Paul movement really isn't that strong there, and that should tell us something. And then you have the added problem of more and more Massholes crosiing the border.

I have but one thing to say:

All year, ice free, deep water, seaport.

 

[dannno]

Austin is a city, New Hampshire is it's own state.. that would be one benefit of 'taking over the place', so to speak.

 

[Anti Federalist]

One more thing to add about NH.

Property taxes.

I was going to post more detail about what I have, but thought better of.

Suffice to say I have a pretty substantial piece of land, (over ten acres) a new three story home and pay about $2200 a year in property taxes.

Keep in mind, property tax rates are set partly by each town, so what you pay can vary wildly between town to town.

Do your homework if you are going to buy a home.

Check the town's "master plan", make sure they are not planning on building a billion dollar school or cop shop anytime soon.

Then, having arrived, make goddamn sure you get involved in local town politics to hold the line on spending.

Within the first year here, we were instrumental in stopping two massive eminent domain takings, which would also have included huge bond issues.

2009 tax rates for most NH towns: http://www.joeshimkus.com/NH-Tax-Rates.aspx

The number indicates tax per thousand of assessed value.

Holderness NH, for example, is $12.96 per $1000

$1296.00 for a $100,000 dollar home,

$3888.00 for a $300,000 dollar home, and so on.

 

[Danke]

Bleah, most of Texas, for that matter most of the south, is a cop loving, soldier sniffing, neocon infested, roadblock filled, surveillance state.

Austin is an anomaly.

You can keep your ungodly summer heat.

But AF, everything is bigger in Texas, everything!

 

[Distinguished Gentleman]

This whole discussion is confusing because it 's comparing city government, state government, and senators from a state, which often give conflicting information about how freedom friendly a state is.

Assume people are irrational voters, as it is consistently true. There's a few wedge issues like abortion, but otherwise many people will throw out their whole philosophies for someone who happens to tickle their fancy at the moment. If you want to see how fertile a state is for takeover, look at the institutions and ignore what people have wanted in the past. What people want is good marketing. Everything else is incentives brought about by the institutions.
Are unions a major force? This is important for state budgets and school choice issues.
Are there a lot of university faculty compared to population? Teachers and researchers have economic incentives to support big government. Also. universities typically have many require "humanities" classes but don't steer students toward economics, which in turn steers people our way.
High population density means more city workers.
A state has to be somewhat secular to support medical marijuana or gay marriage. There are drawbacks as secular and liberal seem to go together. Medium-secular is ideal.

I believe an empirical study of those factors would show which states would be best fitted for a libertarian takeover. I also believe it would be wise to have regional free states as only a negligible amount of libertarian activists would want to move from the south or west coast to New Hampshire.

 

[Anti Federalist]

But AF, everything is bigger in Texas, everything!

Wait...wut?

 

[payme_rick]

Ha, never been to NH but I lived in Austin for a bit and have visited there many a time, it's for sure not a libertarian place when it comes to the laws there...

But I will say, I have hope for that city... the people there have a spirit about them that I'd argue is very libertarian in nature, they just haven't figured it out yet...

:collins: <~~~ just saw this, so I wanted to use it...

 

[heavenlyboy34]

^^ this. I think states like Montana, CO, OK and Arizona have many advantages, and the people are more the rugged individual type -they are the true sleeping giant. I thought about NH, but I'm not anarchist enough for many, and really haven't been too impressed with some of the free state projects antics to gain attention. The Ron Paul movement really isn't that strong there, and that should tell us something. And then you have the added problem of more and more Massholes crosiing the border.

I haven't met many rugged individualists, and I've lived in AZ for almost 30 years. Maybe they live away from the big cities? There is still some remnants of Goldwater-type libertarianism, but we liberty-loving types are still a relative minority (AFAIK). (How do you think Maricopa County wound up with a proto-fascist for sheriff?) Some libertarian issues go over well here (like pro-gun stuff), but not too many in my experience. Too damn many pro-military-industrial complex/pro-war folks around for my tastes. Also, last I checked the whole city of Tempe banned smoking in public places(a college town, of all places!). That said, I think AZ folks would be more receptive to a libertarian movement than most western states.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

But AF, everything is bigger in Texas, everything!

lolz! I've been there, and that's not exactly true.

 

[erowe1]

I haven't met many rugged individualists, and I've lived in AZ for almost 30 years. Maybe they live away from the big cities? There is still some remnants of Goldwater-type libertarianism, but we liberty-loving types are still a relative minority (AFAIK). (How do you think Maricopa County wound up with a proto-fascist for sheriff?) Some libertarian issues go over well here (like pro-gun stuff), but not too many in my experience. Too damn many pro-military-industrial complex/pro-war folks around for my tastes. Also, last I checked the whole city of Tempe banned smoking in public places(a college town, of all places!). That said, I think AZ folks would be more receptive to a libertarian movement than most western states.

I'm not directly familiar with AZ, but I don't think he should have included it in a list with those other states. I think the states that most match what he was thinking of are the inland northwest ones: Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. And to a lesser extent some of the states surrounding them, especially CO, ND, and SD.

 

[driller80545]

. Texas comes in 5th behind 1-NH, 2-CO, 3-SD and 4-ID in the overall freedom ranking.




This is screwed up. Colorado is the most government intrusive state I have ever experienced. By comparison, Texas is out of their league.

 

[Wesker1982]

New Hampshire = Too damn cold.

It is warmer than where I live but if I am going to move its going to be to somewhere where I don't see snow.

New Hampshire...we call that "shorts weather" where I'm from.

+1. -30 here right now and no road access to my house. I had to park my car a couple blocks away and use a backpack to carry groceries while walking through 2 feet of snow. Snow+ negative 30 degrees+public roads =

The only state that comes near New Hampshire would be Montana and possibly Wyoming.

Lets start a Free State Project Montana, I'm down.

 

[Eric21ND]

It is warmer than where I live but if I am going to move its going to be to somewhere where I don't see snow.



+1. -30 here right now and no road access to my house. I had to park my car a couple blocks away and use a backpack to carry groceries while walking through 2 feet of snow. Snow+ negative 30 degrees+public roads =





Lets start a Free State Project Montana, I'm down.

Yup at least you guys have some mountains to brace the wind. We got nothing of the sort. -30 temps and strong winds everyday....windchill is probably absolute zero.