Ep 188: Hear the one about the libertarian town taken over by bears? - Grafton, NH
Today, Taylor talks us through the story of Grafton, NH, and the "Free Town Project." Grafton, like much of New England, has been home to Black Bears for thousands of years (maybe longer? We're not Bear Historians). The Abenaki people hunted them and lived with them. The Europeans almost hunted them to extinction, but with some new regulations, the population revived! Join us now in Grafton, where a gaggle of Libertarians moved in the early 2000s, looking for a life of freedom from taxation and government meddling; Live Free or Die is the state motto, after all! The folks in Grafton, however, took it a smidge too far; there was no fire department, no public works, and especially no rules on what you could do with your trash or how many bears you could feed. A utopia, it was not.
Doomed to Fail · Farz Sokhansanj, Taylor Pineiro
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Show Notes
Today, Taylor talks us through the story of Grafton, NH, and the "Free Town Project." Grafton, like much of New England, has been home to Black Bears for thousands of years (maybe longer? We're not Bear Historians). The Abenaki people hunted them and lived with them. The Europeans almost hunted them to extinction, but with some new regulations, the population revived
Join us now in Grafton, where a gaggle of Libertarians moved in the early 2000s, looking for a life of freedom from taxation and government meddling; Live Free or Die is the state motto, after all! The folks in Grafton, however, took it a smidge too far; there was no fire department, no public works, and especially no rules on what you could do with your trash or how many bears you could feed.
A utopia, it was not.
Sources:
https://www.fsp.org/move-to-nh
How a New Hampshire libertarian utopia was foiled by bears - https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21534416/free-state-project-new-hampshire-libertarians-matthew-hongoltz-hetling
Libertarians Took Control of This Small Town. It Didn’t End Well. - https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/08/30/libertarians-took-control-of-this-small-town-it-didnt-end-well/
A Libertarian walks into a bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling -
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