Diseconomies of Scale: Dismembering Leviathan

by Donald W. Livingston

“Free trade,” like “free love,” is a beguiling abstraction that hides more than it reveals. Absolute free trade would be an exchange of commodities between two people without the coercive intervention of a third party. But economic exchange is always embedded in a cultural landscape of noneconomic values, which impose restraints. Blue laws prevent trade on Sundays, medieval Christendom prohibited charging interest on money, and some think no decent society could legalize the sale of drugs or firearms. If someone disagrees with these restraints, it is because he rejects the moral ideals they express, not because he favors “free trade.” Within the restrictions imposed by usury laws, trade flourished in medieval Europe; indeed, it gave rise to the practices we call “capitalism” today. Those who value liberty may seek to minimize these constraints, but economic relations cannot exist outside of noneconomic restraints.

Tax Resistance—An American Tradition

By Robert Riversong

Though I believe that political secession from the New American Empire is vital to the long-term sustainability of Vermont culture and is achievable in time, I would like to suggest a powerful interim strategy of individual economic secession.

Tyranny cannot be sustained without the cooperation of its victims. The lifeblood of empire is money, and the most effective method of nonviolent non-cooperation is to withhold from Caesar the means to fund his armies of oppression.

I'm suggesting tax resistance as a method of severing our personal connection to the umbilical cord of power. Tax resistance, and war-tax resistance in particular, is as much an essential part of the history of American democracy as is pamphleteering and soapbox sloganeering.

Book Review: Rob Williams on Sherman et al.'s Freedom and Unity

For anyone wishing to understand the promise of a unique place like Vermont, a new and comprehensive account of the Green Mountain State's past is a useful starting place. Michael Sherman, Gene Sessions, and P. Jeffrey Potash's book Freedom and Unity: A History of Vermont offers the traveler a remarkable look at how the Green Mountain State came to be. Don't let the 700 pages intimidate. The book gracefully runs the reader through a comprehensive history of our little section of the globe—a welcome addition to any historian or Vermontophile's library.

Breakdown of Nations

By Kirkpatrick Sale

I have just returned from a meeting in Salzburg, Austria, of the “Academic Inn,” an institution of drinking and talking in various pubs and taverns that was initiated more than 30 years ago by a man born just outside that city, a great thinker and luminary, Leopold Kohr.

This year I had the chance to present the audience of some 150 Austrians with an idea of the sentiment for secession boiling up in the U.S. and I read the Middlebury Declaration, all of which was greeted by enthusiasm. Salzburgers already have some sense of being independent, for the state of Salzburg has always been a powerful regional organization within Austria and in many ways it is roughly self-sufficient. They understand the underlying motives for separatism and autonomy.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Editorial by Ian Baldwin

Vermont Commons incorporated itself in December 2004. We figured out our publishing plan in February 2005 and assembled the team to make it possible that same month. In a breathtakingly short time we launched a website with an active (even hyperactive) blog and produced three monthly issues of our print journal, in which some of the nation's best writers have made contributions. We did all this for less than $10,000, relying on the volunteer time of just about everyone listed on the masthead, as well as our contributing writers. As someone experienced in the difficulties and hazards of publishing, I find myself stunned into a kind of wonderment.

Vermont 2020: A Clear Look into Our Future

by Rick Foley

Imagine that the whole world is abuzz with the story of our state's unprecedented secession from the United States. We first hinted at “divorce” during our 2007 annual town meetings by voting in favor (208 of 216 towns) of a non-binding “Independence Resolution”. Then we got serious, lobbying for a statewide referendum option for binding resolutions. In January of 2008, we passed the “Secession Resolution” by an impressive majority. The legislature wrestled with the nuances of recognizing both the U.S. and Vermont Constitutions, but that summer the general assembly finally called for a state convention to decide the issue. After an intense four-month “conversation” that made the heated debate on civil unions look like a WWF sweat fest, the 268 delegates, on January 15, 2008, delivered a two-thirds-plus majority decision to secede.