Slow Life Blog from the Lake District
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me

The Hong Kong Ideal

26/8/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
“Government is an inefficient industry because it has an insane barrier to entry. To compete with governments on existing land you have to win a war, an election or a revolution”
        - Patri Friedman

Patri Friedman has resolved the problem of competing with governments on existing land with his idea of building a new country on the ocean.
His is the Randian ideal of a libertarian state in which the government plays a minimal part. Paul Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of Paypal has agreed to back the scheme.

What they really want to achieve is a new Hong Kong, a country which, owing to a fit of absentmindedness, was allowed to develop on its own, with very little input from the government. In 1948 Hong Kong had a population of 600,000 and no natural resources. This was the year when the great socialist experiment began in the UK and the Governor of Hong Kong was instructed to apply the dead hand of the state there. For one reason or another, the Governor never got round to it and Hong Kong was allowed to develop as a free market economy with minimal taxation. Millions of Chinese fleeing from the mainland were able to enter illegally and take advantage of the opportunities there, raising the population to 6 million and turning it into one of the richest places in the world.

In 1948 Israel also had a population of 600,000 and at that time had an income per head twice that of Hong Kong. The population of Israel expanded as fast as that of Hong Kong, as Jews from all over the world came to settle there. They brought with them huge wealth, which continued to pour in from wealthy benefactors and US aid. Fifty years on, the population of Israel had grown to 6m, just like Hong Kong, but their income per head had fallen to half that of Hong Kong, a comparative decline of 400%. This relative decline was caused by the fact that their government was highly dirigiste; whereas the government in Hong Kong simply allowed their citizens to get on with their lives. That’s why Patri Friedman wants to create his new libertarian state.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    ​About Slow Life

    The idea of Slow Life is to take the principles of Slow Food, which are “good, clean and fair”, and extend them to life in general.

    Here in the Lake District, the air is clean, the pace is slow and the atmosphere is calm. If we don’t grow food ourselves, we can buy it in friendly small shops, where you know the quality is going to be the best.

    This blog is a celebration of the Slow Life, with forays into the world of design, music, the arts, gardens, and my particular weakness, Japan.

    Archives

    June 2017
    December 2016
    August 2015
    May 2015
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009

    RSS Feed

Home   |   About Me   |   Contact Me

Jonathan Denby's Slow Life blog from the Lake District

© Copyright Slow Life 2020. All rights reserved   |   cookie policy    |   Site by Treble3
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me