Galts Gulch Petition

[Boris Rarden]

Why don't we create a site like the http://freestateproject.org/ but to start a full objectivist community where we wouldn't have to pay any income taxes. Let's prepare a petition to USA government asking for autonomy, according to the following plan:

Stage 0: Build it.

1. We take a geographical area in USA (buy lots of cheap land, in the middle of nowhere, in the states)
   
2. We build a small community there using money from our current jobs
   
3. We slowly increase amount of time that we live on site
   

Stage 1: Live in there -- need petition granted

The rules below are created to be in such a way that we are not taking anything away from USA infrastructure. The core issue at question is the absense of income tax on barter exchange within Gulch.

Definition: Base Value -- Public school teacher's salary residing outside of Gulch. If USA will have one day no public teachers, we will take a percentage from the average salary of private teachers who have between 1 and 2 years of experience.

1. We will pay a fee for use of electricity infrastructure and water, which USA govt can change any time, with 1 year advance notice, if the change is more than 5% in value, and 1 month notice if it is less.
   
2. We will pay a fee for a member entering or leaving Gulch. This fee encodes the cost of public roads and infrastructure required to get to Gulch (gas, airports). This fee is a percentage of Base Value, and the percentage can not be changed.
   
3. We will pay a one time property tax for the area. This fee is agreed upon when the petition is approved, and can not be ever changed.
   
4. Protection fee: We will pay a fee to USA for running the military to protect us, per Gulcher. This fee will be a fixed percent of Base Value, and can not be changed.
   
5. On purchase of any item not produced in Gulch, we pay USA sales tax, or USA import tax if it is imported from abroad.
   
6. We don't pay income tax on barter between Gulchers, even if it is using some kind of local currency to facilitate it.
   
7. We don't use the American dollar, but maybe Bitcoin or plain gold for business inside Gulch.
   
8. We don't pay any taxes -- no property taxes on any land inside Gulch. No sales taxes on purchase of any products from a Gulcher.
   
9. If located on a river, we do not pay any tax on using the river motive power.
   
10. We don't pay any taxes on any natural resources in the land (existing or discovered later).
    
11. We can not pollute environment (air) to more than 1% since inception when measured at the border of Gulch, if it can be proven that pollution comes from within Gulch (and not externally).
    
12. A Gulcher can study in USA only as an international student (same kind of high fees).
    
13. Should the govt want to nationalize Gulch (maybe because there's a lot of oil found), it may do so with a 10 year warning, as well as it gives permission for Gulch to move to relocate to another area with natural conditions similar to those of Gulch that have been when Gulch was formed. For example, certain percent of trees, certain access to a river, etc. Gulchers have the legal right to demolish any kind of construction they have created.
    
14. A Gulcher can serve in the military. In this case he does not pay the protection fee while he is serving.
    
15. To avoid paying income tax, both the employee and the company must be in Gulch:
    

• We only pay income tax if we perform work for a company outside of Galts Gulch.
  
• If a company who deems to be Gulch based hires someone who resides outside of Gulch, he is required to pay income tax.
  

I should also mention that all the other internal laws in Gulch will be laws supporting a laissez-fair capitalism model, and will not contradict any hard criminal laws in USA constitution (like laws against murder etc).

USA might grant such petition for the following reasons. First, we must have a solid amount of members to be taken seriously. In the thousands, and the more the better.

Second, we are proposing a form of a peaceful change or resistance. In history, every group that got any kind of autonomy, first had to go to war. However, most people today, even non-objectivists, realize that it is better to settle things without war. We will be setting a precedent, in a similar way Ghandhi did when he proposed a peaceful form of resistance. We will appeal to the American constitution, and common sense, citing examples from history of devastating wars a persecution when a group wanted to be different. For example, the early Christians pacifists, who spoke openly against Roman military policy. Or late Pagans who didn't want to convert to Christianity. Or the war for American independence, or the war between North and South. We will show that people of different views can co-exist side by side, without having to go to war. We can give this a fancy name of "Peaceful Separatism" or something like that.

Third, the public will not have problem with us not paying income tax, because we are not taking anything out of the American infrastructure. The few things that we do use (military, import of goods from abroad, etc) we will pay for proportionally to what we pay now as American citizens.

What do you think of the idea ? Do you want to make amendments to this list of laws ?

[Pickles]

If anyone knows who Boris is let me know. I am always looking for people to help with a similar idea.