The Free State Project: Political Migration in Our Time & Liberty Forum

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As most people here know, the New Hampshire Liberty Forum (FSP) is one of the sponsors of this forum. Liberty Forum is the annual Free State Project conference in Nashua, NH. It attracts, free staters, potential free staters, leaders in the liberty movement from around the nation and people from around New England that are interested in one of the speakers. The 2012 Liberty Forum was likely the largest ever with around 700 people. I know most people here weren't able to see Peter Schiffs two speeches at Liberty Forum, Carlos Millers speech and so on. Don't worry! I going to post links to a few articles about Liberty Forum and links to Free Talk Live. Free Talk Live, the most popular pro-liberty radio show in the US, was live at LF for 3 nights. Dozens of LF participants we on Free Talk Live during those 3 nights so you can get a splash of what LF was about by listening to those three episodes of FTL.

http://freestateproject.org/libertyforum
https://www.facebook.com/LibertyForum
 
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Jeffrey Albert Tucker is the publisher and executive editor of Laissez Faire Books. He is past editorial vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and past editor for Mises.org. Tucker is also an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and an Acton University faculty member.

The Free State Project: Political Migration in Our Time
Jeffrey Albert Tucker
http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/the-free-state-project-political-migration-in-our-time/

Consider the Free State Project. It is an attempt, and a surprisingly successful one, to inspire a political migration by lovers of liberty to New Hampshire. It is not about lobbying, forming a political party, populating a real estate development or anything like that. It is about seeking a place to live and let live in these times when the political culture seems to be about everything but that.

I had heard of this movement for years, but, frankly, didn’t pay much attention to it. I suppose that with only a passing glance, it seemed sort of cranky and unworkable, just another scheme. I was completely wrong. This is a serious movement that is achieving real results, as I observed when I was invited to attend the annual Liberty Forum in Nashua, N.H.

News coverage is increasing. And the movement is clearly growing as trends in the U.S. get worse and worse. And after this election season, when it becomes very obvious to disillusioned liberty lovers around the country that national politics are now and will forever be hostile to the philosophy of individualism, I can easily imagine that the Free State Project will have another wave of immigrants ready to wave the flag: “Live Free or Die.”

Regards,

Jeffrey Tucker
 
Carlos Miller is a Miami multimedia journalist who has been arrested twice for taking pictures of cops. He has documented some of the most absurd cases against photographers over the last few years on his blog "Photography is Not a Crime".

Enjoying My Time At The New Hampshire Liberty Forum
By Carlos Miller
http://www.pixiq.com/article/enjoying-my-time-at-the-new-hampshire-liberty-forum
I was also interviewed in person on Free Talk Radio, a first for me, even though I've been interviewed in the past by them through phone.

My first caller turned out to be Jimmy Justice, a man who's not only been featured on Photography is Not a Crime but on The Colbert Report as well as you can see in the video below.

The article has tons of pictures of Carlos with various activists like Ian Freeman (the creator of Free Talk Live), Ademo Freeman (the creator of Cop Block), Jodie Emory (Cannabis Culture) and many more.

The article also has the Colbert Report video of Jimmy Justice, which is awesome!

Here is the video of Carlos Miller's talk at Liberty Forum. Ian Freeman, the creator of Free Keene, introduces Carlos Miller.



Carlos Miller did another story on the Liberty Forum/New Hampshire/Keene

Videos Of My Speech At NH Liberty Forum And Near-Arrest At NH Courthouse
By Carlos Miller
http://www.pixiq.com/article/videos-of-my-speech-at-the-nh-liberty-forum-and-near-arrest

Here is video of Carlos Miller almost getting arrested at a courthouse in Keene, NH.
 
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Count me in, hows the job market in NH?

The employment rate is the 4th lowest in the US (the lowest east of the Mississippi River) at around 5%. NH has a great deal of tech and retail related (malls, stores, restaurants, gas stations...) jobs so if you have any experience in those areas, that is a big plus. There are also lots of tourism (ski areas, theme parks, water parks, hotels, guides, boat industry...) education, heath care, manufacturing and so on. I should caution you that around 15% of the working population work, at least some of the time, in MA. That's because parts of the 2 southeastern counties in NH are in the Boston MSA (5 million people from 3 states are in the Boston MSA.) 3 cities with between 50,000 and 100,000 people are on the MA side of the NH/MA border.

The free staters have created resources to help FSPers find jobs in NH. On Facebook, there is the FSP Job Alert. The FSP website has an excellent section about finding a job in NH. Various forums, such as the FSP Forum, have information about finding a job in NH.
 
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John Bush is a founding member of Texans for Accountable Government and the Co-founder of Operation Defuse, Lone Star SMART, and Indigo Agora. He's a dedicated activist who uses creativity, consistency, and boldness to spread and further the message of liberty. His ultimate goal is the creation of a wholly free society.

Here is part of the opening ceremony. The video is Ron Paul's Freaking Giant introducing John Bush. Then, John Bush talks about agoraism and how to build a free society.

Here is the youtube video description.

In this lecture, Agora 21: A Counter Economic Approach to Building a Free Society in the 21st Century, John Bush juxtaposes Agenda 21, a United Nations plan to create a totalitarian world government, with Agora 21, his plan to replace the existing coercive state with a system of mutually beneficial voluntary association. In his talk he discusses the fatal flaws of the US Constitution and the notion that a monopoly state can be compatible with individual liberty. In addition to outlining the problems we face, John offers a solution: Agorism, AKA revolutionary market anarchism. Watch the speech with an open mind and ask yourself if you living your life in a manner consistent with your inherent individual liberty? 2012 Liberty Forum in Nashua New Hampshire by the Free State Project.

 
Count me in, hows the job market in NH?

Everything depends on your perspective. If you're a computer engineer or some high-end tech sector type, then there's plenty of those type of jobs around and you won't have any problem. If you're a regular guy who works for a living, it's a bit more difficult, but not as much so as elsewhere in the country. There's plenty of work here as long as you're not in a sector of the economy that has completely collapsed, such as construction or real estate sales.

The hard part is lining up a place to live in advance. If you're in such a situation where you can make a visit beforehand to locate and purchase a house, then you're golden in that regard. But if you're renting, it's virtually impossible to find a landlord who will deal with someone at a distance. I ended up having to just arrive, stick everything in storage, and sleep in my vehicle for a couple weeks until I found someone who was willing to take my cash.

Moving anywhere is not without it's hassles, but if you come to NH, you'll be glad that you did it. Plenty of excellent opportunities for activism here and people in general are very laid back. Some things perhaps take a bit of getting used to, but I love it here and would never consider living anywhere else!
 
No major liberty conference is complete without wicked awesome firearms, real money and talk about ending the fed. All were abundant at Liberty Forum 2012.

wicked awesome firearms


real money, shire silver


real money, James from Silver Annex


end the fed, Silver Circle's Megan Duffield on Free Talk Live


end the fed, Danny Panzella on Occupy The Fed
 
Someone created a youtube video playlist featuring videos of many of the speeches at Liberty Forum.

FSP Liberty Forum 2012
by TruthSquad.TV

The New Hampshire Liberty Forum is an annual libertarian conference hosted by the Free State Project. It has attracted as speakers the likes of U.S. Presidential candidates, a sitting U.S. Senator, a sitting U.S. Representative, state legislators, directors of numerous policy institutes, and a World Wrestling Entertainment professional wrestler.

In addition to catering to a wide variety of libertarian-minded interests, the conference also serves as a way by which the Free State Project can showcase New Hampshire to prospective participants as a hotbed of libertarian activism. http://nhlibertyforum.com

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB20F26E037CD37EC
 
Peter Schiff is an internationally recognized economist specializing in the foreign equity, currency and gold markets. Schiff is CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc., a broker-dealer based in Westport, Connecticut and CEO of Euro Pacific Precious Metals, LLC, a gold and silver dealer based in New York City.

Peter Schiff spoke formally a couple of times and then informally, also. I cannot find a nice version of either of his formal speeches. If I do find more Peter Schiff videos, I'll post there here.

a small clip of Peter Schiff's first speech


Ridley Report interview with Peter Schiff
 
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The hard part is lining up a place to live in advance. If you're in such a situation where you can make a visit beforehand to locate and purchase a house, then you're golden in that regard. But if you're renting, it's virtually impossible to find a landlord who will deal with someone at a distance. I ended up having to just arrive, stick everything in storage, and sleep in my vehicle for a couple weeks until I found someone who was willing to take my cash.

Moving anywhere is not without it's hassles, but if you come to NH, you'll be glad that you did it. Plenty of excellent opportunities for activism here and people in general are very laid back. Some things perhaps take a bit of getting used to, but I love it here and would never consider living anywhere else!

I am so sorry for your experience. I am sure there must have been some extenuating circumstances because I've never heard of anything like it before. Here is my experience. I saw that a free stater posted a room opening online. I drove up and had a room. I noticed it on the FSP Forum but there are also postings on the Shire Society Forum and PorcManor.com. Honestly, over the last few years, I've never known of a time when some free stater wasn't offering to rent to a new mover via one of those three website. I know there are several openings throughout the state right now. There is also a special place in Keene and a special place in Manchester that let free staters spend the night for around $20 per night.

I also know a free stater, Ian Freeman, that bought his house without ever visiting New Hampshire. He even used a non-free stater real estate agent. He was very happy with his experience. There are also real estate agents that love helping free staters located in Manchester, Concord, the Seacoast (2 of them) and the Upper Valley. There are also extended stay hotels, especially in Nashua. Nashua also has apartments without leases that you only need to give a 30 day notice on. You can even stay in a campground while you look around. That isn't as crazy as it sounds because I know of more than more person that visited New Hampshire during Porcfest, stayed at Porcfest part of the time, traveled around the state looking for a place to live part of the time, and then moved into their new place when Porcfest ended.
 
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As most people here know, the New Hampshire Liberty Forum (FSP) is one of the sponsors of this forum. Liberty Forum is the annual Free State Project conference in Nashua, NH. It attracts, free staters, potential free staters, leaders in the liberty movement from around the nation and people from around New England that are interested in one of the speakers. The 2012 Liberty Forum was likely the largest ever with around 700 people. I know most people here weren't able to see Peter Schiffs two speeches at Liberty Forum, Carlos Millers speech and so on. Don't worry! I going to post links to a few articles about Liberty Forum and links to Free Talk Live. Free Talk Live, the most popular pro-liberty radio show in the US, was live at LF for 3 nights. Dozens of LF participants we on Free Talk Live during those 3 nights so you can get a splash of what LF was about by listening to those three episodes of FTL.

http://freestateproject.org/libertyforum
https://www.facebook.com/LibertyForum


Nothing against NH, but is there any chance you can take this movement nation wide. May be pick out two or three other states around the U.S. that are in the top five all ready and bring them up the level of NH.
I feel moving is the only real answer. Would it be best to keep the next three states connected to NH and grow from there for security reasons, or can you spread them out and make it easier for people move?
 
Nothing against NH, but is there any chance you can take this movement nation wide. May be pick out two or three other states around the U.S. that are in the top five all ready and bring them up the level of NH.
I feel moving is the only real answer.

Yes and no. I personally am not interested in spread the NH liberty movement to other states (other than traveling to other states like NV and VT) to help Ron Paul (and perhaps Rand Paul) and spreading information about Free Talk Live (the top pro-liberty radio show in the US, even though it is based in NH) in other states. I pass out Free Talk Live flyers from time to time in various states (maybe a dozen so far.)

Other people in NH are spreading the NH liberty movement to other states. For example, Free Talk Live is on over 100 radio stations, 2 XM stations and a few of TV stations. Most of those stations are not based in NH. Free Minds Radio is on at least one radio station outside of NH. Free Minds TV is on a bunch of TV stations outside of NH.

Still other people are creating content, concepts or stuff in NH that is possible to copy in other states. For example, CopBlock is created by a couple free stater in NH. However, there are CopBlock chapters all over the county from AZ to MA and from CA to VA. A NH free stater created Porcupine 411, a set of rapid message distribution networks. If you listen to parts of John Bush's speech from Liberty Forum, he mentions that he created a similar system for south Texas. A group in CT put on a CT Liberty Forum. Sure it wasn't success, but they got the idea by attending one of the NH Liberty Forums and seeing how successful we are in NH. A group in NC noticed how successful Porcfest is in NH. They created a very small weekend liberty camping event in NC near Liberty, NC. A group in AZ learned about Shire Silver, a group that puts silver in cards the size of credit cards. They loved the idea but decided to use silver dimes in the cards. The New Hampshire Liberty Alliance gives all of the legislatures a rating every year. A group in WY liked the idea and started doing the same thing.

There is also the liberty media. Keene, NH is the liberty media capital of the world. Lots of the media that comes from Keene can also be viewed on stations in other parts of the country. However, all of the online stuff (tv show, many podcasts, radio shows, blog) can be viewed outside of Keene. There are also 3 liberty podcasts coming out of Manchester and another out of Lebanon, NH. There are other liberty TV shows filmed in the Manchester and Concord areas that people from all over the world may view online.

NH also influences the near-by states by keeping the governments small and the taxes lower than they would be in those states without NH bordering them. Politicians from ME, VT and MA site NH from time to time when it comes to their state policies or positions.
 
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Would it be best to keep the next three states connected to NH and grow from there for security reasons, or can you spread them out and make it easier for people move?

As for people moving to multiple states for more liberty, it doesn't make sense to me. People have been trying that strategy for 100s of years in the US and government grows every year. It seems that the strategy is proven without any doubt to not work as of now. However, the strategy of moving to just one state is very new, and the early evidence suggests it works.

If you want to encourage people to try a failed strategy, that is your business. I'm not about encouraging people to seek failure. My understanding of the Wyoming project is that there is 1 to a few additional political activists in WY because of FSW. I know of only one additional political activist in MT because of the movement to encourage liberty activists to move to MT. Of course, if a person lives near the CA/NV and wants to stay in the CA area but also increase their freedom, by all means, move to NV. I have the same advice for the people in MN near the MN/SD border or in WA near the WA/ID border. I'm not against moving for additional liberty, but without a whole lot of other people doing it, I think it is a short term solution and will only result in a minimal gain of increased freedom.

If someone is serious about wanting to be a liberty activist or wants to do something (liberty related and) great with their life, it makes sense to move to New Hampshire. We have tried for 100s of years to create 50 free states and we keep failing at that strategy more and more every year. People have been leaving CA and NY for decades because they have so little freedom. If anything, it's helped make AZ, NM, NV, WY, MT, WA, OR, ID, VT and FL less free. The idea of the FSP has been around for around 10 years. People have implemented or copied the idea in NH, WY and MT. Early results look positive in NH. NH is the freest state with the system of government closest to the people. Keene, NH is the liberty media capital of the world. The liberty movement in NH has had more press over the last few years than the liberty movements in the 49 other states several times over. There are more libertarian legislators in NH than the rest of the US combined. By far, more legislators in NH endorsed Ron Paul than in any other state and he did far better in NH than any of the other primary states (4.5% of the population in NH voted for Ron Paul vs. 1.7% in SC and 1.2% in MI, the next highest states) even though he had competition from 43 other candidates in NH. NH is the #2 most economically free state and it is #11 for personal freedom.

If you personally don't want to move to NH, that is fine. You don't have to move. It isn't for everyone. However, my theory is that if we keep outshining the other states for a few additional years, more and more people will get on board with the idea and move to NH. I look at it like a snowball. The better we do, the more people move. The more people move, the better we do. People in other states have already started to copy what we do. As NH becomes more and more free, I think more and more people will copy our great ideas.

You have heard of http://paulville.org/ right? The idea is to create a new place for Ron Paul supporters. Guess what, the website is dead and has been for years. Have you heard of Grafton, NH? It's the most success community in the US when it comes to becoming a pro-liberty community. Many of the elected officials are pro-liberty. It is only a matter of time before the majority of the officials on all of the town boards are pro-liberty. If a few years, it will be similar, but far better, than what the creators of Paulville had in mind. Of course, it wasn't created from scratch. It is a real town where the voters elect Ron Paul supporting Democrats and Republicans to various town positions. In a few years, it will be the success that people dreamed of for years.
 
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Technically the FSP hasn't even started yet. The 1,000 people there are just there early. Accomplishing a lot for something that technically hasn't started yet. Once you get the full amount of signatures give me a call, and I'll head on over.

For now, I'll keep trying to make my overlords lives difficult in whatever way I can. To the 1,000 that have already moved - thank you.
 
As for people moving to multiple states for more liberty, it doesn't make sense to me. People have been trying that strategy for 100s of years in the US and government grows every year. It seems that the strategy is proven without any doubt to not work as of now. However, the strategy of moving to just one state is very new, and the early evidence suggests it works.

If you want to encourage people to try a failed strategy, that is your business. I'm not about encouraging people to seek failure. My understanding of the Wyoming project is that there is 1 to a few additional political activists in WY because of FSW. I know of only one additional political activist in MT because of the movement to encourage liberty activists to move to MT. Of course, if a person lives near the CA/NV and wants to stay in the CA area but also increase their freedom, by all means, move to NV. I have the same advice for the people in MN near the MN/SD border or in WA near the WA/ID border. I'm not against moving for additional liberty, but without a whole lot of other people doing it, I think it is a short term solution and will only result in a minimal gain of increased freedom.

If someone is serious about wanting to be a liberty activist or wants to do something (liberty related and) great with their life, it makes sense to move to New Hampshire. We have tried for 100s of years to create 50 free states and we keep failing at that strategy more and more every year. People have been leaving CA and NY for decades because they have so little freedom. If anything, it's helped make AZ, NM, NV, WY, MT, WA, OR, ID, VT and FL less free. The idea of the FSP has been around for around 10 years. People have implemented or copied the idea in NH, WY and MT. Early results look positive in NH. NH is the freest state with the system of government closest to the people. Keene, NH is the liberty media capital of the world. The liberty movement in NH has had more press over the last few years than the liberty movements in the 49 other states several times over. There are more libertarian legislators in NH than the rest of the US combined. By far, more legislators in NH endorsed Ron Paul than in any other state and he did far better in NH than any of the other primary states (4.5% of the population in NH voted for Ron Paul vs. 1.7% in SC and 1.2% in MI, the next highest states) even though he had competition from 43 other candidates in NH. NH is the #2 most economically free state and it is #11 for personal freedom.

If you personally don't want to move to NH, that is fine. You don't have to move. It isn't for everyone. However, my theory is that if we keep outshining the other states for a few additional years, more and more people will get on board with the idea and move to NH. I look at it like a snowball. The better we do, the more people move. The more people move, the better we do. People in other states have already started to copy what we do. As NH becomes more and more free, I think more and more people will copy our great ideas.

You have heard of http://paulville.org/ right? The idea is to create a new place for Ron Paul supporters. Guess what, the website is dead and has been for years. Have you heard of Grafton, NH? It's the most success community in the US when it comes to becoming a pro-liberty community. Many of the elected officials are pro-liberty. It is only a matter of time before the majority of the officials on all of the town boards are pro-liberty. If a few years, it will be similar, but far better, than what the creators of Paulville had in mind. Of course, it wasn't created from scratch. It is a real town where the voters elect Ron Paul supporting Democrats and Republicans to various town positions. In a few years, it will be the success that people dreamed of for years.


Thanks for your hard work and extended answers.

I had an idea after I posted, your answer would rather biased. Why would you undermine your movement getting people to move to NH by telling others the other good states to move to.

If you have the time. In your opinion. What are your top ten House resalutions or laws, that personify your states ratinge in each category.

Economic:

Personal:
 
Thanks for your hard work and extended answers.

I had an idea after I posted, your answer would rather biased. Why would you undermine your movement getting people to move to NH by telling others the other good states to move to.

I cannot answer the other part of your question. But I will share these two links with you.
2011 New Hampshire Liberty Related Bills Report
2012 New Hampshire Liberty Related Bills Report

As for which states I would recommend people move to for instant, short-term gains in freedom, I recommend looking at the Freedom in the 50 States ranking.
Overall top 5:
1. NH
2. SD
3. IN
4. ID
5. MO

Economic Freedom:
1. SD
2. NH
3. ND
4. ID
5. VA

Personal Freedom:
1. OR
2. VT
3. NV
4. IN
5. AK

However, economic freedom isn't exactly what it seems to be. Yes, taxes are very high in AK and even WY. However, those taxes are partly paid by oil/gas/mineral companies. Individual tax payers typically don't pay high taxes in AK and WY. So while the taxes and government spending are high in those states, personal taxes are not. It is important to keep that in mind.

Like I mentioned, there are already (highly unsuccessful) efforts underway in WY and MT. You could join those efforts. There is also another effort that copied part of the idea of the FSP but is about forming a theocracy in SC. People that want to help form a very religious, highly oppressive government, are moving to SC. Of course, hardly any of them are moving, but it is something worth keeping in the back of your mind.

As for competition to the FSP, yes, I think it is pointless. Heck, the major competition is Wyoming. So far, the two people that moved to WY that I actually know don't beleive in political change at all. One of them recently posted on my Facebook about how voting is pointless and it is better to spend my time encouraging people to not vote. Of course, almost no one voted in the recent caucuses in WY and no one cares. The results are still completely legitimate. Other WY mover told me that as low as only one person that has moved to WY as part of the project is currently involved in political activism. WY is by far the best success story outside of NH, after 7 year, perhaps as few as one person that moved to WY is involved in politics. In NH, it is 600-900 people.

Seriously, why even have this discussion.
 
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