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If you want to engage in anal sex in a public park or watch hardcore pornography aimed at teens on public television, then sure, it's your place, but many of the personal freedoms Americans enjoy are not to be found in the Netherlands. For example, there are countless obstructions to building your own house on YOUR land (so many as to make it impossible to build anything other than a modern-style house), gun rights are virtually non-existent in comparison with the U.S, and the government forfeits about half of your income. Really "free"...
Given that citizens of democratic countries have chosen to vote for this setup, with freedoms in different areas, then yes, that is pretty free. Having a set of laws that the voting citizens agree with is about as free as it is possible to get, outside of living like a hermit.
I suspect the OP is actually looking for a country where the people that agrees more with his preferences in freedoms than the one he is in.
Given that citizens of democratic countries have chosen to vote for this setup, with freedoms in different areas, then yes, that is pretty free. Having a set of laws that the voting citizens agree with is about as free as it is possible to get, outside of living like a hermit.
I suspect the OP is actually looking for a country where the people that agrees more with his preferences in freedoms than the one he is in.
gun rights are virtually non-existent in comparison with the U.S, and the government forfeits about half of your income.
If there is no need to use a gun due to very low crime and no wild animal, I could live with that pretty good. And what has the tax rate do to with beeing a police state or not?
I think most Scandinavian and western European countries are not a police state. I just think of the Police Interceptors cruising around my university here in the US all day to watch for any suspect activity and charging high fees for drinking alcohol etc. No university in Europe I have ever been to has its own police and I have never seen a police car on campus over there. And nobody cares about drinking or eating whatever you like.
However, how could we defince police state? To me, a really bad police state is a country where people might be more afraid to meet police officers at night than to meet criminals. When travelling thru Russia, I sometimes got that feeling...
Usually "police state" means like military rule, martial law, or minimal civil liberties. Many of the things the OP said fit that, but I think they were indicating opposition to any kind of tracking or surveillance of people. It might be difficult to find a country where there basically are no police or at least no security measures in public buildings.
Looking it up though maybe Costa Rica would fit as they do have relatively few police per-capita.
If you want to engage in anal sex in a public park or watch hardcore pornography aimed at teens on public television, then sure, it's your place, but many of the personal freedoms Americans enjoy are not to be found in the Netherlands. For example, there are countless obstructions to building your own house on YOUR land (so many as to make it impossible to build anything other than a modern-style house), gun rights are virtually non-existent in comparison with the U.S, and the government forfeits about half of your income. Really "free"...
I have some relatives over there and as a country it is very restrictive to do just about anything and if they don't have a law for it, they make the taxes so punitive that it dissuades you from doing so.
I can't remember the # they told me just to keep their car on the road with what they pay in road tax and it was in the thousands of euros.
Cambodia. You can shot someone and wait for the police to get there, then you just give them $50-100 and they'll clean up the body after you.
You can also buy heroin from police officers, and have sex with minors. Does it get more free than that??
Cambodia. You can shot someone and wait for the police to get there, then you just give them $50-100 and they'll clean up the body after you.
You can also buy heroin from police officers, and have sex with minors. Does it get more free than that??
That fails as an answer to my question on element #7 - "a climate of fear." And, yes, it can get much more free than that. It's ludicrous to equate violence and extreme lawlessness with being not a "police state." They are not equal in value or intent.
I think 3 and 6 are kind of what I think would be difficult to avoid. Most modern nations are going to "license and regulate essential activities" and keep databases. I'd assume even Costa Rica does some.
On that "Free existence" site St. Lucia came out fairly high and is in the Caribbean which you like. As you don't really mention gun-rights, drug-rights, or inflation I tried to take them out. Doing that St. Lucia I believe came out higher. Mauritius also did okay and it's high on all the major "Indices of Freedom" according to Wikipedia. Mauritius is at least somewhat less modern than like Australia or Switzerland.
I'm looking for opinions about which countries to live in that are not police states. To me, currently, a police state means:
1 - government surveillance of citizens' normal lawful activities.
2 - encouraging people to snitch on their neighbor's political and other non criminal activities and setting up government programs to do that.
3 - multiple cross-referenced databases of citizens' lawful private banking and financial dealings.
4 - body searches to enter public buildings and use public transportation.
5 - government confiscation of personal property.
6 - licensing and regulation of essential activities.
7 - a climate of fear
Somalia is the only place that met the criteria above.
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