24A021 Free to Travel by Jim Davies, 6/4/2024

A passport comes very close to that oxymoron, a "necessary evil." Unless you're content to stay in the country of your birth all your life, you need one. It's necessary. Nobody can cross one of those lines that governments draw on maps, without one.

I tried, once. I set out to cross several such lines, without having checked whether mine had expired (why need they expire?) and while the Belgians and Germans didn't bother, when I lined up for the Swedish ferry at Travemünde the gatekeeper called ahead and found that no, mine would not be accepted at Trelleborg. So I had to cool my wheels in Hamburg waiting for the Consulate to open.

Presently, the situation of youngish Ukrainian men, who wisely took refuge from the war in some safer country, is much worse. They are wanted, for what has become known as the meat-grinder. If they don't shape up, ship out and sign up, the UkeGov has said its consulates will no longer provide "passport service." That means they will be stuck, big time. Isn't that sinister? Slavery, on stilts.

During its Vietnam War, the USGov ran a draft scheme and those who fell foul of it but saw no sense in helping kill people they didn't know sometimes crossed the Canadian border (at the time, a birth certificate sufficed) to escape its clutches. Others went further, and then-neutral Sweden was popular, despite the unfamiliar language. Until a foreign nationality had been established, even the Feds did not stoop to the savagery of the Ukes and cancel US passports. They do now.

So, passports are not a convenience for travelers. They are tools of control, for governments.

When E-Day dawns and ours implodes, the passport-issuing bureaucracy will vanish with it so all passports will progressively expire. How, then, shall we travel from and back to the new, zero government society?

There won't be any passport-control where the Former USA ends, so any trouble will be encountered only on the foreign side. You land in Dublin and the friendly gatekeeper says Begorrah, this one's out of date, didn't you notice that, then?

You patiently explain that we've shaken off the curse of government Stateside, so no paperwork more current is available. Can you enter the Emerald Isle and enjoy its Guinness and its poteen and green hills and pastures, and wouldn't it be a shame, now, to turn you around and send you back?

Long story short, tourists and businessfolk from the FUSA are valuable visitors, so he waves you through the barrier. That may not be true for the first few to arrive, but eventually the calculus will be easy: do tourists bring money, or not? In that simple way, the Age of the Passport will fade away.

How will it work in reverse; that is, when a foreign visitor arrives at a port in the FUSA? He'll have a fine-looking, valid passport in hand, but nobody will be there to take an interest.

Having done some homework about the new ZGS in the FUSA, he'll know that all land here has a true owner, and that treading on any of it is by invitation only. Some will (as today) be off-limits, frequently marked "Private, no access." Other bits will welcome visitors, as valuable potential customers; road owners for example will advertise their low tolls and safe designs. There will be a great deal that seems the same as today - except that there won't be any "public" property, for the very phrase itself is an oxymoron.

There will be parks small and large, either because the owners wish to attract hikers etc for a fee, or because the owner bought a beautiful tract and provided free access to all in perpetuity, as a bequest in his will. I expect most benefactors of that kind will place the land in trust, with money to fund caretakers. No doubt most of them will memorialize the donor's name.

Some visitors will sample the freedom, and wish to stay - to immigrate. Why not? They will bring money, or saleable skills, or both. Either is good for the existing population. If they have just skills, there will be a market for them, and that is certain, for all markets always clear. The price (of labor) will adjust in the light of demand and supply. Immigrants with little or no English will, ceteris paribus, command a lower wage than those who learned some before setting out. Possibly, the demand for those will dry up, meaning that the pay offered is too low to be acceptable; should that happen, the flow of immigrants will stop, or pause. No need for walls or quotas or bureau-rats.

This vision is not just theory. It is very close to what actually happened, during the first century of the USA; immigrants came (sometimes responding to ads from States that actually encouraged them!) expecting nothing but a chance to work and prosper, and without any kind of passport or ID. Those were the very people who made America great. Then came the restrictions and meddling and controls of the 20th Century. Next will come the ZGS, the Zero Government Society, and the shredding of all that nonsense. And prosperity will explode again, along with freedom.