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The desert town of Rio Verde Foothills ought to be a lesson in what happens when you buy a home in places without the resources needed for human life. But some people are doing their utmost not to learn that lesson.

[Previous: Why libertarian cities fail]

If youve been waiting for an update on Rio Verde Foothills, here it is!

As a quick refresher, Rio Verde Foothills was a libertarians dream: an unincorporated community in the rural fringes of Maricopa County, Arizona, northeast of Phoenix. To those who bought homes there, it was a desert paradise, with peace and quiet, gorgeous scenery, predictable weather, and best of all, very little government.

Arizona law requires homebuilders to prove that they have reliable access to waterbut that often involves taxes. Showcasing their dedication to freedom, the builders found a way around this. As I wrote previously:

Arizona law requires homebuilders in active management areas to secure a reliable source of water expected to last at least a hundred years. However, theres a loophole: the law only applies to subdivisions of six homes or more. You can guess what some clever developers do: they simply build lots of subdivisions each consisting of only five homes.

But then they made an awful discovery. It turns out, even when you find a way to skirt regulations about water humans still need water.

Like the grasshopper and the ant of fable, the inhabitants of Rio Verde Foothills found a solution: parasitizing their neighbors who planned better than they did. Specifically, they were driving tanker trucks into the neighboring community of Scottsdale, filling up from the municipal supply, and carting the water home.

This went on for a while until Scottsdale, understandably, got fed up and cut them off. This was at the beginning of 2023. What followed was months of misery, as RVFs residents had to skip showers and baths, eat off paper plates, and pay through the nose to have water hauled in from elsewhere in the statean expensive and unreliable proposition.

Eventually, the state of Arizona stepped in and imposed a compromise, ordering Scottsdale to let RVF use their water supply for one more year as an interim measure. In the meantime, Rio Verde Foothills will get a new pipeline built to carry water to the community at enormous cost to residents. It will also have a strict limit imposed on future expansion:

As the media frenzy around Rio Verde Foothills reached a fever pitch last summer, the state legislature passed a bill that forced Scottsdale to provide water to the neighborhood through 2025. A few months later, a state regulator approved a long-term agreement between the community and a large utility called Epcor, which agreed to build a new water standpipe in the neighborhood and import a new water supply from elsewhere in Phoenix. Rio Verde Foothills residents will pay for the $12 million project through water bills that could be double or triple current rates. The deal also limits future growth in the neighborhood, allowing for just 150 additional homes to access the standpipe.

Its been an exhausting, exhausting fight for this community, and people are not happy with how much it costs, said John Hornewer, a Rio Verde resident who runs the neighborhoods largest water hauling company.

Turns out freedom isnt free.

This story should be a lesson about the folly of building or buying property in places without the natural resources needed to sustain human life. But it isnt being treated that way.

Incredibly, after this ordeal, some people still havent learned anything:

Theres an appetite for [reform], but I think that will be lost in the shuffle, said John Kavanagh, a Republican state senator who represents the Rio Verde Foothills area. The home builders will be aggressively lobbying against a lot-split bill, and youve got some members with a more libertarian slant who believe in the right to property being almost unlimited.

Indeed, home builders are now pushing the legislature to move in the other direction, arguing that the 100-year water supply standard is holding back the states economic growth.

While Arizona solved this specific problem, it didnt close the loophole that made it possible in the first place. In fact, developers want the laws about water availability loosened. These wildcat communities are still being built in places without an adequate water supply, and the people who move there will pay the price.

Theres a clear take the money and run attitude at work. As the climate gets warmer and drier, limits on water availability will make new housing developments almost impossible in increasingly large swaths of Arizona and other desert states. Its likely developers are calculating that their best strategy is to build houses as quickly as possible, sell them off, and get out of Dodge before more people realize this.

The desert communities being built today are going to end up as desiccated, uninhabitable ghost towns. But developers have no incentive to care, as long as they get paid and move on before the bubble bursts.

What were seeing, in Rio Verde Foothills and other wildcat communities, is Ayn Rands cornucopian attitude in action. Its the habitual libertarian mindset of assuming that natural resources are limitless and free.

Specifically, they assume that there will always be water, somehow, from somewhere, so theres no need to concern themselves with where it comes from. Just move where you want, and everything else will work out. The capitalist principle of supply and demand can overcome any problemeven nature itself.

Because of this blind spot, libertarians dont understand why regulation is ever necessary. In their mind, laws that govern where people can live are arbitrary government tyranny, not a reflection of any underlying physical reality.

In a warming world, that assumption is slamming into a brick wall of reality. Thanks to climate change, the American West is getting hotter and drier. The Colorado River, which sustains millions of people, is overstretched already. Its flows have fallen 20% since the turn of the century, and its likely going to get worse.

We may soon witness history repeat itself. The spectacular cliffside city of Mesa Verde had to be abandoned by its builders, the Ancestral Puebloan people, because of a prolonged drought that rendered it uninhabitable.

The climate-change-induced megadroughts coming to the West in the future may well be even worse. When will lack of water force people to give up and migrate elsewhere? Will our modern desert settlements become arid, crumbling ruins preserved as parks a thousand years from now?

Read more here:
Libertarians in the desertan update - OnlySky Media

DES MOINES, Iowa Republicans werent the only ones who braved the bitter cold Monday night to do some political business.

The Libertarian Party of Iowa (LPIA) also conducted a statewide caucus and held its own 2024 Presidential Preference Straw Poll. LIPA says this marked the first time they had held a caucus during a Presidential campaign as a major party.

We firmly believe in the process that is the Iowa Caucuses, the proving ground of campaigns, says LIPA Chair Jules Cutler. It has been extremely exciting to witness candidates actively building their brands, expanding their teams, and fortifying our party well in advance of the LP nominee's selection by delegates at the Libertarian National Convention.

With 98 of 99 counties reporting results of the straw poll stand as such:

Chase Oliver - 42.70%

Michael Rectenwald - 16.85%

Michael ter Maat - 13.48%

Joshua Smith - 13.48%

Vivek Ramaswamy - 4.49%

Mario Perales - 2.25%

Robert Sansone - 2.25%

Jacob Hornberger - 1.12%

Lars Mapstead - 1.12%

Art Olivier - 1.12%

Chase Oliver is a former Libertarian Party candidate for the U.S. Senate in Georgia.

Too often our candidate in the past was starting way behind the other two major parties because they had only campaigned to Libertarians at various State Conventions and didnt have the structure and organization in place to move into the general election at full speed, says Cutler. With the results of our Straw Poll last night, its clear that those with support teams in place, putting in the groundwork, are beginning to position themselves not only for the LNC but also if they were to get the nomination, for the tough campaigning to come in the general.

Delegates elected Monday night will reconvene in Des Moines on February 16-17th for the District/State Conventions. They will play a crucial role in electing the new State Central Committee and delegates to the Libertarian National Convention in Washington D.C. on May 24th-26th.

Read the rest here:
Libertarian Party of Iowa announces the winner of its statewide Presidential caucus - KIMT 3

Was Milton Friedman the most important libertarian of them all? That's part of the conversation I had with today's guest, Stanford historian Jennifer Burns, who has written a masterful and definitive new biography of the Nobel Prizewinning economist. Without reservation, I recommend you check out her new book, Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative.

Friedman was arguably not just the most influential free market economist of the 20th century but the central figure in building the broad political and intellectual coalition that successfully challenged Keynesian economics and the top-down rule of experts in so many aspects of our lives. I talked with Burns about Friedman's conceptual and methodological breakthroughs in economics; his way-ahead-of-his-time collaboration with female economists such as Anna Schwartz and his wife Rose; his role in popularizing free market economics through his columns in Newsweek and the TV series Free To Choose;his controversial engagements with politicians such as Richard Nixon and Augusto Pinochet; and his role in ending the military draft and championing school choice. We also talked about Burns' previous book, Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, and its connections to her new work.

This episode was taped at the Reason Speakeasy, a monthly, unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy that doubles as a live taping of this podcast. Go here to get information about Speakeasys and all our upcoming events.

See the article here:
Jennifer Burns: Why Milton Friedman Matters More Than Ever - Reason

"Does this economic system produce a lot of Dollar Stores?"On Glenn Greenwald'sSystem Update Rumble show, former Fox News star Tucker Carlson issued a scathing indictment of what he calls "libertarian economics" over the weekend.

"Libertarian economics was a scam perpetrated by the beneficiaries of the economic system that they were defending," Carlson told Greenwald.

"So they created this whole intellectual framework to justify the private equity culture that's hollowed out the country," said Carlson. "A smarter way to assess an economic system is by its results."

"I think you need to ask: 'Does this economic system produce a lot of Dollar Stores?'" said Carlson. "And if it does, it's not a system that you want, because it degrades people and it makes their lives worse and it increases exponentially the amount of ugliness in your society. And anything that increases ugliness is evil.So if it's such a good system, why do we have all these Dollar Stores?"

Carlson is indicting not just cheaply, readily available consumer goods, but also something deeper, he claimed.

"And the Dollar Store itself is a sort of symbolfor your total lack of control over where you live, and over the imposition of aggressively in-your-face ugly structures that send one message to you, which is, 'You mean nothing. You are a consumer, not a human being or a citizen.'"

On so many counts, Carlson is wrong. Life in the U.S. has gotten better since 1969, when he was born, in clear and measurable wayslife expectancy, child mortality rates, average income per person, liberal democratic scores of countries around the world, and much more. The "lack of control over where you live" is a total fablethough housing supply crunch is real (and government-created). If he's describing a sense that something is wrong within the American spirit, he should come right out and say so, but I'd expect the causes of these maladiesdeaths of despair trending upward, for example, or American males falling behind their female counterparts on educational achievementare deeper than "cheaply available consumer goods have proliferated."

Accidental hostage killing: On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) admitted to accidentally killing three Israeli hostages who had been taken by Hamas.

Three menYotam Haim and Alon Shamriz, both of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Samer Talalka, of Kibbutz Nir Am"had emerged shirtless from a building and were carrying a makeshift white flag," in Shejaiye, an area of Gaza City where Israel and Hamas forces had been fighting, perThe New York Times.They had reportedly taken off their shirts to make clear that they were unarmed and not wearing any explosives and were approaching IDF soldiers, speaking in Hebrew.

The Israeli military said in a statement that its "soldiers were on high alert for attempts by Hamas to ambush Israeli forces, possibly in civilian clothes, as they patrolled the area," per aTimes account.

Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military's chief of staff, said that IDF policy is to arrest people who lay down their weapons, not shoot, and that so far more than a thousand people have been taken into military custody this way. "It is forbidden to shoot at those who raise a white flag and seek to surrender," said Halevi. Nonetheless, Israeli soldiers made a profound mistake, which is being criticized by both Israelis and the rest of the world.

Scenes from New York:New York City recently passed a law banning size and height discrimination when hiring dancers, which follows in the footsteps of similar legislation passed by San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

"The law includes an exemption for when height or weight may interfere with the essential requirements of a job," reported The New York Times. "But what are 'essential requirements' in the highly subjective world of dance?"

To put an even more cynical gloss on it: It seems highly unlikely that the government meddling in this way will make a difference, even sidestepping the question of whether this is an appropriate thing for policy makers to be spending time on.

Read the rest here:
Tucker Carlson Issues Scathing Indictment of 'Libertarian Economics' - Reason

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by Juan David Rojas

Captain Anarchocapitalism, at your service. Credit: Getty

This week, Javier Milei was sworn in as president of Argentina. His election comes at a time of introspection for the international (if not the Latin American) Right. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni has disappointed conservatives and populists for failing to stem uncontrolled immigration as well as her staunch support for Ukraine. In Spain, conservatives suffered a brutal humiliation after Pedro Sanchez secured reelection with the backing of Catalan separatists. Will Milei follow suit by campaigning as a populist and governing as a centrist?

The answer depends on the criteria used to judge his presidency. Already, the president has backtracked on eliminating the central bank and cutting relations with Brazil and China. But these decisions are secondary to the central goal of Mileis presidency: reducing inflation. On that front, its difficult but certainly possible that Captain Anarchocapitalism will succeed in fulfilling the aims of his superhero alter-ego. Just days ago, the administration announced a devaluation of more than 50% of the Argentine Peso with subsequent devaluations of 2% to come on a monthly basis. The objective of these measures is to finally stabilise the overvalued peso by turning Argentinas current account deficit into a surplus.

By devaluing the peso and cutting export taxes, Argentina should be able to make its agricultural exports more competitive and reduce its large trade deficit a key requirement for amassing funds to pay Argentinas debt with the IMF and other lenders. Of course, devaluing too much will lead to further inflation as the peso loses buying power, particularly of imported goods. That Milei has chosen a more gradual approach to devaluation is prudent but is still not enough to repair the countrys economy.

The president is betting that by drastically cutting spending and subsidies as well as privatising state industries, Argentina will finally be able to pay for its obligations without printing money nor piling on more external debt. The problem here for Milei who has stated he wants to cut spending by 5% in 2024 is twofold. On the one hand, drastically cutting spending will require the support of Congress, where Mileis coalition lacks a majority in the Senate. On the other hand, if he succeeds in drastically cutting spending, it will almost certainly lead to large increases in unemployment and reduced economic growth.

Similarly, while privatising state industries and cutting subsidies may alleviate fiscal pressures in the short-term, it will also lead to higher energy prices a key driver of inflation. In either case, the spectre of mass protest will loom large during most of Mileis term. Cognisant of this scenario, yesterday, the President announced a novel security protocol giving the army the right to break strikes and arrest protestors.

The reality is that Argentina has a long road to recovery. It should be noted that Chiles Pinochet took more than 10 years to stabilise inflation and caused mass unemployment in the process. Milei, however, will have to wrestle with the pesky trappings of democracy that otherwise would have led to Pinochet being thrown out of office.

Still, the cases of Brazil and Peru during the 1990sshow that its possible to control inflation on a shorter timeline. Perus authoritarian President Alberto Fujimori, for instance, coupled many orthodox neoliberal measures with unorthodox ones such as massively increasing the minimum wage. It remains to be seen if the doctrinaire Milei is capable of the same economic heresies.

Likewise, Milei will need to fight the temptation of unfunded tax cuts that so often hypnotises libertarian conservatives. Much of Argentinas current predicament is the result of the ruinous administration of Mauricio Macri (20152019) now a close ally of Milei. Like Liz Truss, Macri had the original idea of passing large, unfunded tax cuts that more than doubled Argentinas national debt and did not result in increased growth.

Many have noted that Macri and many of his allies have secured key posts in Mileis cabinet including control of the Central Bank. Its very possible that the president will not be able to resist calls from coalition allies (and by extension the Argentine elite) to massively cut taxes. This also assumes that the president might himself be against such a proposal.

Regardless, should Milei succeed in taming inflation, his political project favours agriculture over industry and oligarchs over workers. His broader goal of turning Argentina into the United States is the same pipe dream that Latin American conservatives have repeated ad-nauseum since Milton Friedman first visited Pinochets Chile in 1975.

At best, Milei might succeed in temporarily transforming Argentinainto a stabler resource colony (i.e. Chile). At worst, he will follow in the footsteps of Macri and deliver the opposition Peronists another resounding return to the Casa Rosada in 2027.

See more here:
Javier Milei's libertarian experiment begins - The Post - UnHerd