This story totally made my day! - "European Cities Do Away With Traffic Sign

I invite any Libertarian who thinks Europe is becoming "more free" to live there for 4 to 5 years like I did, integrate into the local economy, and operate in a day-to-day context, rather than a theoretical transatlantic one. Come back within 5 years, compare the US living experience to the comparable European one, and then tell me where you felt "freer."

After you pay your council tax, your income tax, and your tax tax, and after you register for your mandatory biometric ID card with machine-strip that records your addresses, national ID number, and passport data. Probably also after you say something "insensitive" about someone who views himself as a member of an aggrieved "oppressed" class and possibly spend time in prison for "speech that incites hatred or prejudice."

If, after all of this, you still desire the freedom of the signless road, enjoy the thousands of speed cameras, the $8 to $11 a gallon gas, and the astonishing road and car "tax disk" taxes -- while paying north of $30,000 for a Mazda3 with a 1.8 that costs $16,000 in this country with a 2.0. Of course, you could slum it in a FIAT Punto -- no need for speed limits with that vehicle, since I could never whip mine to go above 70 or so on the motorway with its super-fast 80-something horsepower 1.2 liter engine. . . when it wasn't in the shop. :wink:

Cheers,

Brian

I thought it was obvious I was making a sort of ironic commentary, akin to what one might say if one discovered that San Francisco had lower business taxes than Orange County, or something else that flies in the face of our usual assumptions. I was not literally arguing that Europe as a whole is becoming more free, or that it necessarily is more free than the U.S.

Love & Liberty,
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