The Libertarian Position on Catalonia

By Pater Tenebrarum at the Acting Man blog:

As libertarians we should always support secession, for a number of reasons:

    The smaller the territories governments rule over, the less power they have.

    The more territories and governments people can choose from, the less tyrannical government policies will be, as people will find it easier to vote with their feet.

    Competition among governments is a good thing for citizens. One reason why the EU has become such an evil organization since it expanded its remit from being a trade union to become a political entity trying to centralize power.

    The idea of secession will eventually lead to the total abolition of government. After all, if a territory can secede, why not a city? Why not a block within a city? And lastly, why should not individuals also be able to secede? Incidentally, this was an argument Rothbard made in support of secession. He basically said: "We are told anarchy is bad but governments and nation states exist in a state of anarchy vs. each other. Why is that not bad? And if that is not bad, how come getting rid of government altogether is considered bad?"

    I have empirical support for this idea as well. Where is economic freedom the greatest, and which countries are therefore the by far most prosperous? Well, how about Hong Kong, Switzerland, Singapore, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra, all of which are tiny political territories. Some of them are almost twice as rich (in output per capita) than the so-called "developed world". What unites them are "laissez-faire" governments, low taxes, almost no licensing requirements, low tariffs or no tariffs at all, and so on. Oh, and none of them "throw their weight around on the world stage" or threaten any of their neighbors militarily.

H/T Mish

More articles:

Catalonia - fake freedom.

And, of course, not remiss fucking Merkel and the view from Switzerland:

She did not do anything
Catalonia and Spain are approaching the abyss. EU politicians remain depressed. Merkel fails. (in German)

Sie hat doch gar nichts getan
Katalonien und Spanien nähern sich dem Abgrund. Die EU-Politiker schweigen depressiv. Merkel versagt.