The Most Libertarian Countries for Drugs, Gay Rights, Prostitution, and Taxes Are…

according to the U.K. Telegraph,

• Portugal for drugs
• Argentina for gay rights
• Canada for prostitution
• Andorra for taxes

On that last topic, check this out:

There is no income tax in Andorra on either individuals or companies. Citizens pay five to nine per cent of their salaries towards social security. Spanish expatriates who move to Andorra still have to pay Spanish taxes under law for the first five years of their emigration.

Monaco and the Isle of Jersey are nipping at tiny Andorra's heels when it comes to taxes, by the way.

And the least libertarian place in the world - which is to say, the least transparent and most corrupt - was Somalia (oh noes). Among western countries, Russia took the top slot on that score.

Read the whole list/story here.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

That article got torn a new one in the comments.

[Dweebston]

I figured the article was written in a tone of revulsion and airy distaste. The most libertarian countries! Drugs and prostitution and low taxes! Horrors compounding horrors!

[Drake]

Do we have to do it again?

"Hey, here's a list of socialist countries where you can get high and have ass-sex."

[Francisco d Anconia]

All my comments from last night apply here.

That is all.

[Brett L]

Just import mine from the MLs before that, where I pointed out that guns, gold, and access to cheap transplant organs are also a huge part of the libertopian experience.

[MOFO.]

"There is no income tax in Andorra on either individuals or companies. Citizens pay five to nine per cent of their salaries towards social security."

That's an income tax. The mere fact that you say "this is used for social security' doesnt change that.

[Juice]

Came here to say this. Someone even got into an argument with me over it. "It's a payroll tax! You can't just call it an income tax because you want to."

ernieslowlylookingupfrombook.jpg

[Emmerson Biggins]

+1 common effin sense

[Marc F Cheney]

Wait wait wait.

Wait.

Wait.

Is that a t-shirt?

If so, I have a blank check made out to "Cash".

[Jack the Reaper]

yes...yes it is.

Just google "somali libertarian t shirt designs". They have them at zazzle.

[NoTalentAssclown]

but... but... ROADZ!!!!!

[Hyperion]

Didn't we just do this, yesterday?

[a better weapon]

They left Argentina off the list this time around to make it fair to the other countries.

[CampingInYourPark]

Among western countries, Russia took the top slot on that score

Yeah, Russia is just a stones throw from Alaska, therefore western.

[Hyperion]

Sarah Palin can see it from her house, so there you go, western.

[Teaching Student]

It's West of Alaska

[Hyperion]

Did Congress just opt themselves and their staffers out of Obamacare, or is it possible that's not true because it would be too much of a low down dirty act, even for congress?

[CampingInYourPark]

Not exactly, OPM is going to rule that 75% of employees premiums will be paid by the taxpayer, like it was before. They will still, by law, have to participate in the exchanges.

[Hyperion]

How exactly, by income, would they qualify for a 75% subsidy? Because isn't that the way we have to qualify for a subsidy?

I think maybe we need an amendment to the constitution that says congress cannot be exempt from any laws that they pass. I bet they will pass a lot less laws then, and even start repealing some.

[CampingInYourPark]

"How exactly, by income, would they qualify for a 75% subsidy? Because isn't that the way we have to qualify for a subsidy?"

I agree, they're not worth the money, but, it's technically not a subsidy any more than your employer contributing to your health insurance is a subsidy. If the argument is that federal workers are over-paid and receive too many benefits, then sure, I agree.

[Hyperion]

Yeah, but my employer doesn't pay me with other peoples money. I get what you're saying, but I'm still angry about it, as we all should probably be.

[RightNut]

No hat-tip Nick? wtf!

[Hyperion]

I posted the link to this story, early yesterday morning.

[RightNut]

I emailed them this early yesterday morning. Either way, someone should get a hat-tip!

[Hyperion]

No hat tips for you!

/Hat Tip Nazi

[a better weapon]

Hyperion, tried to find you in the AM links.

Didn't get to Sullum's "Argentina is libertarian" piece to really late, but you said your wife is from Argentina.

My wife and I are going to Buenos Aires in a few months, any unique, uncommon suggestions for us tourists?

[Hyperion]

Nope, she has 2 nieces in Buenos Aires, her sister lived there for a while. But my wife is Brazilian.

I'll ask her tonight for suggestions, she was there in 2011, and see if I can find you here after...

[a better weapon]

Ah, I see. Maybe that was Francisco's wife? Anyways, thanks for asking!

[Francisco d Anconia]

Not mine. We visited Argentina in 04 though. We flew into BA, but spent all our time in Patagonia (centered around Bariloche and the Lake District). I fished...she hiked... Awesome trip.

[RBS]

It wasn't really Sullum's piece, someone else wrote the article he just blogged about it.

[Drake]

What about Fiji? According to the Kennedy family, that's the best place to hide a billion dollar trust and your oil company from income and inheritance taxes - while working to raise those taxes on American rubes.

[wareagle]

drugs, gays, and prostitution, the societal markers everyone looks to in deciding where to live.

[Zeb]

It's kind of sad how many people think that those things are what makes a free society. As if it doesn't matter if it is nearly impossibly to start a business or hire someone or that you can't do what you want with your own property as long as you are allowed to entertain yourself as you want (which, of coure, you should also be free to do).

[np]

To be fair, it is certainly a marker of unfree society where those things are criminalized.

Basically there's no place that is a free or even a freer society in general, because you'd have to ask exactly, very specifically, in what and to who?

There are many counterexamples to every example of someplace being "freer" than another. Staring a business? Well, you have to ask, exactly what kind of business. Regulations? Again, details matter.

Heck, for all it's crappy issues, Sweden is more free--in terms of regulations and barriers to entry for entrepreneurs. Denmark, for it's sky high taxes, has a maximum of corporate taxes of %, and is also ranked as having the most free labor market in the world, where you can hire and fire with ease, without any fear of lawsuits. This extends to private individuals to, where communes freely associate and can deny membership that would surely get them into a discrimination lawsuit in the US.

[np]

edit: *max corporate tax of 25%* (which is being reduced to 22%)

[Juice]

That's weird. Denmark is well known as a stifling socialist hell.

http://www.dollarvigilante.com.....state.html

[np]

Site's down so I can't see what Berwick wrote. I don't disagree that they are socialist, but again, details matter and there are many things defy preconceptions.

The right to hire and fire anyone at anytime certainly defies socialist conceptions, but then again, it is compensated for by their welfare system. They are also not dumb enough to kill off their own tax base, so they ease the burden on international businesses with a relatively low corporate tax 25% (later 22%). And for all the "equality" that people think socialism might entail, Denmark does not suffer from the infection of feminist socialism Sweden does, thus they are also more free in regards to sex as well (again, comparatively speaking in specific issues)

I mean Ireland is also pretty socialist... and people are stunned by their 12% corporate tax.

[Calidissident]

According to both the Heritage Foundation and the Fraser Institute's Indices of Economic Freedom, Denmark has more economic freedom than the United States. There's more to economic freedom than social spending

[np]

Because liberty is chopped up into thousands of little separate freedoms, you cannot objectively make a comparison about which places are more or less free. It would always be relative to the individual and his/her values.

The only way you could say that a country is more libertarian than another is to show that that country is freer in every single area. Even in broad areas there are distinct differences in terms of pros/cons of a variety of details.

For example, when you look at the details, you honestly cannot say the US is better in speech than other countries (which I hear stated often), but neither can you say it is worse.

[Acosmist]

Yes you can.

[np]

Monaco and the Isle of Jersey are nipping at tiny Andorra's heels when it comes to taxes, by the way.

Ah yes, Monaco, the gambling, nightclub, F1 racing, tax haven paradise... causing France to complain it gives Monacan soccer players an unfair advantage
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06.....d=all&_r=0

he French soccer league has grumbled about Monaco's exceptional situation in the past. But now, alarmed by the team's sudden winning streak and unnerved by its 120 million-or-so euro (about $157 million) acquisition of three great players ? Jo?o Moutinho and James Rodr?guez from Porto and Radamel Falcao from Atl?tico Madrid ? it finally did something. In March, it decreed that starting next June, any team playing in the French league would have to be based in France and subject to French taxes.

For "any team," read "Monaco."

"Monaco belong at the top level of French football," the league's president, Fr?d?ric Thiriez, said at the time. "It is therefore all the more important that the club adheres to French rules, especially in relation to tax, so that every club in the league is on a level playing field."

[UnCivilServant]

so that every club in the league is on a level playing field.

You know, soccer on an uneven field - one with a lot of hills and gullies - might make it slightly less dull.

[Jon Lester]

The actual penalties for certain things, particularly prostitution, are less harsh in Russia than here in America. That's no reason to risk it when you're there as a foreign tourist, of course, but it's interesting.