As the third millennium dawns on the global village, there
are still countless geo-political borders which are strongly
correlated to the concept of fiscal frontiers. Nations do not
appear to be willing to forsake the idea whereas, on the other
hand, the hard-working population, today more than ever, have no
intention of accepting it. It is extremely difficult to predict
for how many years, governments will continue to persist in the
use of this instrument of defense or aggression, depending on
one's perspective which distorts free competition between people
and their institutions. However, for several decades, it has
become increasingly difficult to claim that man is truly free
unless he is able, without notice or any retaliation, to
terminate a social contract signed at his birth.
In other words, one cannot talk about the full achievement
of freedom if the fiscal power which governments confer on
themselves is not confronted with the right of individuals to
freely select another social organization to grow and prosper.
No one, not even in the most coercive of nations, would ever
think of passing a law forcing a citizen to buy a product or
service from a supplier who is free to dictate price. Custom,
combined unfortunately with unambiguous laws, makes it clear in
some jurisdictions that there is no escape from the obligation to
purchase the social welfare produced by government at a tax price
that the authorities have absolute power to fix or change without
notice and sometimes even with a retroactive effect. The
contradictions left by the historically failed collectivist and
semi-collectivist experiments have already been forgotten by many
nations.
Free competition between governments should be evaluated on
the basis of providing the best social welfare with the least
possible waste. Therefore, nations should be prepared to be
judged by citizens who are free to expatriate their wealth
without economic or psychological retaliation. Politicians are
certainly very far from competing on these terms. In the final
analysis, this is the great challenge of freedom.
About the Author
Marc M. Harris is President of
The Harris Organisation, a financial planning and investment management firm with a staff of 150 people based in Panama. Reprinted from
The Marc M Harris Analysis, a publication of
The Harris Organisation. The Libertarian Library has reprinted this article with the permission of
The Marc M Harris Analysis.
