Denial of Opportunity

I am currently in Costa Rica with colleagues from the Libertarian movement negotiating for land to built a community based on Libertarian principles, ie being left alone to create your own opportunities.

This project was originally going to be set up in Estonia, but the current proximity of a belligerent Russia has put that on the back burner. Last year we shifted our focus to Costa Rica, a small prosperous county that has avoided the bloodshed of other Central American countries. It even abolished its army in 1948.

‘On 1 December 1948, President José Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica abolished the military of Costa Rica after achieving victory in the Costa Rican Civil War that year. In a ceremony in the Cuartel Bellavista, in the capital San José, Figueres broke a wall with a mallet symbolizing an end to Costa Rica's military spirit.

In 1949, the abolition of the military was introduced in Article 12 of the Constitution of Costa Rica. The budget previously dedicated to the military is now dedicated to security, education and culture. Costa Rica maintains Police Guard forces.‘

Yesterday, we had a three hour lunch with somebody who arrived in Costa Rica as a penniless fourteen year old with his family. He has, since 1967, built up a fish export business, restaurants and a construction company now run by his son who recently married. The family is now extensive and thriving.

Government in Costa Rica is light touch, it has a green policy that is ‘real’, they really do want to protect their environment not pay lip service and scarring the countryside with steel /fibre glass/ concrete windmills - which is a sure sign of state imposed green socialism.

I sat and listened to stories of his life in Costa Rica, he was genuinely happy. That happiness has come from being left alone to follow the opportunities that presented themselves to him. How many British people can say that at the age of fourteen they could follow their dreams and work hard and reap the rewards.

State Socialism is the denial of individual opportunity and the creation of a tax farming elite.

My alternative vision and hope for the future is that the empires will fade and be replaced with smaller more prosperous entities based on Jefferson’s Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"

The Jamestown project will be launched on July 13th at Freedom Fest 2022.

Andrew Withers FRSA