Liberty International interviewed Kurt Hanson and Nigel Grier about the potential for a “free city” in Mu Aye Pu, near Thailand. Question: What is Mu Aye Pu? Kurt Hanson: Mu Aye Pu is a new settlement set up by the Karen people of Burma. It is situated on the banks of the Moei River, which forms the border between Thailand and Burma. Now that the war is over, the community is growing as Karen refugees trickle back from camps in Thailand. At present 300 people live at Mu Aye Pu, but our planned community will be home to 100,000 people. The area is blessed with plenty of fresh water and fertile agricultural land to support a large population, Nigel Grier: Also, its next door to the huge market of Thailand and just north of the booming border town of Mae Sot, which will soon have a major east-west highway build by ADB and international airport which will further drive growth in the area. So MAP is in a great location for development and to do business in. Question: Why is Mu Aye Pu an ideal place for this community? KH: Mu Aye Pu is in a unique position in that it is in the autonomous Karen area. The Karen settled the region of eastern Burma some 1,000 years ago having migrated from Mongolia to find a new home there. I recommend the book The Art of Not Being Governed by James Scott, which brilliantly explains how and why the Karen chose to remain stateless. The Karen prove that you can live and thrive without a state. Or, for a shorter read, I recommend this excellent paper by Edward Peter Stringham, Evidence from upland: Evidence from Upland Southeast Asia I’ve been involved in the free cities movement for quite some time and …
John Mackey offers solutions to minimize time in government hospitals
“We are actually an incredibly unhealthy nation,” said John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market. John spoke at an event in Austin, Texas hosted by Liberty International. John pointed to obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and auto-immune diseases as examples, “They’re not infectious diseases. Those are dietary lifestyle diseases that we basically, we bring it upon ourselves.” “We can also avoid those diseases,” added John. According to John Mackey, the best way to avoid medical care is to take care of yourself, which may be an ideal way to minimize time in the government healthcare system, which John considers, “broken.” John said that Americans are getting fatter, “Over 71 percent of all adults are overweight now, and 38 percent are obese.” What’s worse, according to John, is that America is exporting a dietary pattern of obesity, and this is making the world more unhealthy. John listed sugars, oils and starchy foods that Americans have been over-consuming, and this has lead to an obesity epidemic and cancer. “Cancer is far more preventable than most people realize,” said John. The two highest risk factors are diet and tobacco, said John. But John suggested a healthier diet based on whole foods, “The Whole Foods Diet is basically arguing to eat 100 percent real foods.” The diet plan eliminates all processed foods, and increases reliance on plant based foods, while not necessarily eliminating animal foods. John suggested avoiding refined grains, flour, sugars and oils. For further detail on the Whole Foods Diet, click below to watch the entire video:
Austin event a success!
Last month, Liberty International hosted a conference titled “Secrets to Preventing and Treating Disease in the Ever-Changing U.S. Health Care Landscape.” The one-day conference was held in Austin, Texas, and featured John MacKey, Mary Ruwart, Sally Pipes, Naomi Lopez-Bauman, Kyle Varner, and David Vequist. First, Sally Pipes gave an update on Obamacare, and discussed her plan to achieve affordable, accessible, quality care. Next, John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods, shared his ideas about nutrition, supplements and other aspects of healthy living. Mary Ruwart, Ph.D., gave a lunch seminar about little known “secrets” for early detection of disease, prevention ideas, treatment possibilities, and end of life options. After lunch, Naomi Lopez-Bauman gave an update on Right-to-Try policies, and patient autonomy. Kyle Varner, M.D. shared his research into medical tourism, which could help audience members find alternatives to American medicine. And finally, David Vequist, Ph.D. expanded on the conversation about medical tourism, patent consumerism, and free markets winning in health care. Stay tuned for a video of the conference, which will be posted soon! In the meantime, Liberty International announced the World Conference in Puerto Rico to be held on August 8-12. Click here for more information!
Will Bitcoin End the Nation State?
“There’s this fantasy that many writers talk about,” said David Veksler, “of some magical technology that can magically give the individual some power over the state. Some way to evade the authority. Maybe it’s a space ship, or maybe it’s a force field . . . and then there’s bitcoin.” David Veksler is a Chief Architect at the Foundation for Economic Education, and also works at Liberty.me. He blogs at https://veksler.liberty.me/. He gave his presentation on Bitcoin and the Nation State at the 2015 World Conference on Market Liberalization in Bali, hosted by the International Society for Individual Liberty, now renamed Liberty International. View the talk here:
How Oliver Porter Created a Privately Run City
Oliver Porter has done the impossible. He led the movement to incorporate his town into a privately run city. Oliver gave a talk at the International Society for Individual Liberty World Conference on Market Liberalization in Bali about the town of Sandy Springs, Georgia. Oliver was instrumental in incorporating his town of about 100,000 people, which allowed the town to privatize almost all of it’s government services. The town has outsourced it’s parks, traffic, 911, permitting department, call center, and even city hall — all run by a private company. How did Oliver Porter privatize his town? And how can you privatize your town? Find out, in the video! For a good manual on the steps Oliver took to incorporate his town, check out his book Creating the New City of Sandy Springs: The 21st Century Paradigm: Private Industry.
I, iPhone
Hello. I am an iPhone. To many people, I might seem quite simple. Yet take a closer look, and you may discover a whole world of complexity. Not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me. Not even Steve Jobs, if he were still alive — he could not put me together all by himself. Even if Steve Jobs had all the plastic, aluminum, glass, the rare earth metals all lying on a table in front of him, he could not put all of the components together by himself to create a fully functioning iPhone 5s. So how does something so unlikely as an iPhone just pop into existance? Well, my story starts with a man who was shooting at some food, and up through the ground came a bubbling crude. Oil that is. That oil was refined into plastic pellets in a factory. The plastic pellets were shipped to . . . actually to tell you the truth, even I, the miraculous iPhone – I don’t even know how to make me! You can google for days and weeks, and you would be completely lost in the complicated chain of production needed to make a single iPhone. It takes millions of workers from all around the world, all working together in harmony. It seems very unlikely then, that iPhones would ever exist at all. Just listen to all the nay-sayers who laughed at me before I was made: In 2007, one blogger wrote that at $600, “Can the average American afford this? I think not.” Another person wrote, “What people want in a phone is a phone, they don’t want all of these extras.” Still another blogger wrote, “If it brushes up against something in your pocket, …
Doug Casey on Opting-Out: from the state, formal education, and standard employment
Today we are launching a series on “Opting Out” of the system, where we will explore actionable methods of enhancing our individual liberty. To start the series off, we have with us today Doug Casey, the Chairman of Casey Research, who is not only a highly regarded authority in investment, but also in “internationalization”, which he believes is key to protecting oneself, as it keeps one from being dependent on any single government. His latest book Right on the Money, written together with Louis James, one of ISIL’s directors, has come out recently to give readers actionable advice on building and safeguarding their wealth. (Interview conducted on 28 Feb, 2014) Kenli Schoolland [KS]: Hi Doug, it’s great to have you with us. Doug Casey [DC]: Likewise, Kenli, thank you. I guess you’re in London as we speak? KS: Yes, how about yourself? DC: I’m in Punta del Este, Uruguay, which is a fashionable international beach resort in the backward little socialist country of Uruguay. It’s actually quite pleasant. But then I spent a couple of weeks in the Congo between wars and thought that was quite pleasant too. So perhaps I’m not as discriminating as some… KS: Sounds very nice. How do you choose your locations? Is there a trade off between sunshine and socialist governments? DC: Actually it’s hard to find a non-socialist, non-fascist or non-statist/collectivist/ progressive government anywhere in the world today. There’s almost no place you can go to escape them. They cover the face of the earth like a skin disease. And they’re all becoming more virulent and aggressive, which is disturbing. KS: So you might as well take it with sunshine? DC: Governments that are located in tropical areas do tend to be more overtly socialist, they’re mostly undisguised kleptocracies… that’s the bad news. The good news is that they also tend to …