[ExI] Call To Libertarians

[David Lubkin]

Kelly wrote:

>Nevertheless, the ability of the average citizen to become familiar
>with the legislative content is far inferior to that of our elected
>officials. In a more libertarian state, the amount of legislative
>content would be much lower, which is part of the appeal of
>libertarian thought for me.

I live in New Hampshire, which has one of the largest legislative 
bodies in the world. With 400 state reps for 1.3M people, that's 3300 
people/rep or roughly 650 households/rep. Candidates can and do 
personally knock on every door in their district. State reps are paid 
$100/year plus mileage.

Then there's the New England tradition of town meetings, except for 
the cities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_Meeting#New_Hampshire

I routinely run into state reps or senators. (And presidential 
candidates, but that's a different matter.) The home address and 
phone number of candidates and elected politicians are typically 
printed in the newspaper, up to and including the governor.

Because of the state focus on "Live free or die" and the lowest taxes 
in the country, there are far fewer laws. Every town library has a 
complete set of the laws, for anyone to check, and they only take up 
about two three-foot shelves.

A consequence of this is that if you want to be a corrupt politician, 
you go elsewhere. The biggest scandal I can think of in >20 years 
here is that when Chuck Douglas was a supreme court justice and his 
divorce came before the court, his fellow justices let him 
participate in their deliberation.

It is less libertarian than when I first moved here, thanks to influx 
and then to sway in the south of Massachusetts liberals.

But apart from the snow, it's still an excellent place to live in 
virtually every respect.


-- David.