Viva la Techno-Libertarians!

In September 2004, the NSA released a study (now unclassified, but not posted on the net) entitled "Tackling Tomorrow Today: Alternative Futures and Convergent Technologies of 2020".  In this document, Toffler Associates spelled out a number of different technology scenarios and how they would impact the world as we currently know it.

One of the four scenarios was 'Techno-Libertarians', which was obviously my personal favorite.  A few snippets, so as not to get in to trouble with my favorite three-letter governmental agency:

"Hyper-empowered individuals, not corporations, lead this growth.  They create enormous wealth and new industries by combining breakthrough technologies with worldwide networks of experts."..."The ability of individuals to create vast new forms of wealth leads to worldwide political and economic revolutions."

"The wave of economic growth and individualism pushes political power into smaller and smaller units.  Small groups demand more individual attention from government.  They are no longer willing to accept one-size-fits-all solutions from federal bureaucracies.  Their demands force governments to redistribute power from the national level to communities."..."Central governments 'fight' to maintain their position..."

Sound familiar?

I was speaking with a London taxi driver the other day and he said that all of his peers were expatriating to Spain with their hard earned money before the influx of immigration (and the resultant impact on policy and entitlement programs) causes England to blow up like a Wachowski-brothers movie.  These expats were then imposing their willpower on the small Spanish enclaves they had relocated to.

Corporations have long been in the game of playing governments against each other for favorable tax structures.  One large firm went so far as to relocate its entire European operation to a new country when the incumbent attempted to exercise excessive regulation and taxes.

Firsthand, I have seen hyper-empowered individuals re-assert their strength against local governments.  In the small city I live in, there is an ongoing litigation with the city suing itself over a zoning decision, brought on by one individual standing up to the planning committee's ruling to not let him rebuild and expand his barn, which inconveniently sits just off of the main commercial street of the town.

He's not a techno-libertarian, but in watching the Institute for Justice, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and other like-minded organizations take the fight to the government in the name of individual liberties, it's easy to see that the ever-expanding beast of government is being challenged if not remanded to more of a service organization by people with the means to do so.

Lets hope this is a consistent trend. 

P.S. I'll gladly stand by a 'smaller, service-oriented government' message if I ever create a political party or run for office.  If not, please shoot me.