Free Cities: Pioneering Economic Freedom and Autonomy

Host Emily Bron and guest Joyce Brand discuss the Free City Foundation’s vision of free cities and unique governance models. They explore projects in Honduras and global opportunities, highlighting the balance between profit and personal rights. Joyce explains how free private cities cater to different markets and foster personal freedom, especially appealing to those over 50 seeking fresh living options.

TIMESTAMPS:
02:21 Introducing Joyce Brand and Free City Foundation
03:43 The Concept of Free Private Cities
07:09 Historical Parallels and Modern Innovations
11:35 Challenges and Opportunities in Free Cities
13:39 The Honduran Example: Ciudad Morazan and Prospera
48:05 Balancing Profit and Individual Rights
56:57 Conclusion: The Future of Free Cities

Emily Bron: Welcome to the age of reinvention, eco living, free cities, and intentional communities, a multi layered topic that will inform and inspire people looking for living projects where they can be around like minded people and enjoy selected lifestyles and personal freedom. I’m Emily Bron and today We’ve got a fascinating episode for you.

We are diving into the visionary world of special jurisdictions and how they can lead to the better governance. A topic more relevant today than ever in our rapidly changing world. Joining us is a remarkable thought leader in the domain of government innovation, Joyce Brand. Joyce has advocated for free cities and special jurisdictions as a pathway to better governments Through her work with the Free City Foundation and her insightful writing that challenged us To reimagine our approach to society and governance.

Today, we will explore the inspirations behind Free City Foundation, dissect the governance models that promise to reshape our future, and delve into what this innovation means for us and future generations. Hello, Joyce. Having you with us today is a great honor. First of all, what inspired the creation of the Free City Foundation? And how does it’s mission, align with the concepts discussed in your writing in your book on promoting better governments through jurisdictions. What is behind this?

Joyce Brand: The Free Cities Foundation started originally with Titus Gebel, a German entrepreneur, businessman, who wrote a book called Free Private Cities, where he talked about the advantages of Governance that’s voluntary and contractual cities where there’s a city operator that, provides the environment for people to live in.

And they pay a fee to live there, but they don’t pay taxes. It’s not political. They accept they, they want to live under the rules that are offered by that city. They have a contract with the city so that they can have the standing to Um, if the rules can’t be changed on them, the taxes can’t be changed on them. The if the city manager does not deliver the services promised is a real contract and they can be sued for damages. And this concept of a voluntary contractual governance, where the rules are clear to everyone and can’t be changed and they’re accepted freely and voluntarily.

It was something that was an idea that I had been aware of from the writings of Spencer Heath and my friend, Spencer Heath McCallum. But this was the foundation, the, he started, he founded the Free Cities Foundation and he also started a for profit company, Tipless, but the foundation has continued the mission of spreading the word of the concepts of voluntary I use the terms voluntary contractual governance there.

The priest of these foundation is really interested in special areas where. There’s more freedom on offer. And the idea that free cities can choose their governance and compete, and people will choose which kind of government, which rules they want to live under. And they work on the incentives rather than political incentives.

The incentives are what works in the free market that customers, people are customers rather than they’re customers with customers, King, they’re customers that the success of the company, the community depends on the customers rather than citizens who have an obligation to vote and, do all of these other things.

So that that’s the mission. I believe in that, but my interests are more in a specific model of voluntary contractual governance where the it’s more it’s under that umbrella, but it’s more a matter of landowners are the natural people to provide public goods like To me, the three most important things are security, infrastructure, and some kind of legal structure to handle disputes and things like that.

And that’s what. my book is about, which I have to show immediately.

Emily Bron: Absolutely. It’s a very interesting work that I believe will be starting point for people to be more familiar because the topic is big and every time I’m reading and any related article and materials. It’s, it just diving deeper and deeper to different aspect of it.

And I have more and more questions, which I don’t even believe we can uncover today. But my next question can you draw the parallels between the historical precedents of self governing territories or communities? And the modern iteration of free cities as a solution to governance challenges.

And you know what, I will start a little bit because yesterday I was thinking, suddenly get to my mind and I’ve been in these places, in Judea desert, the first Christians with Jesus Christ, when they there is a place where actually they had the messianic community. Back in times, and it was the first, I cannot say model of Free City Foundation, but ideologically, it was they were speaking about freedom in terms of the time.

And after then, from what I know examples of Indonesian independence the Genoa, like different city countries like Dubrovnik Couture, like in different it was in previous times, but they were examples of economical. development, which was prosperous, for the time.

What are the parallels and difference between today’s city foundation and historical, examples we can find?

Joyce Brand: Yeah, the city states were in some ways I maybe to say the difference is those city states were ruled by someone who had, was given the authority to make the rules just it was sometimes hereditary.

The rulers were different city states had very different rules. So in that sense, there was a A very good parallel of competition between cities. But because we didn’t have the technology and the transportation, it was very difficult for people to move from one city to another. So it was basically, if they were born in one city state, that’s where they lived their whole lives.

And they really didn’t have the freedom to say, no, I don’t like these rules, I think I’ll move to another one. It was just not as easy. The difference today is that we can create city states with different rules all over the world and people can easily move. It’s just, not easily, because obviously that’s the relocation, the Cutting ties with your culture and where you’ve been used to and going to a completely different place.

There are certainly challenges, but the difference is it’s much easier. Now you can find like minded people and the kind of environment you want in a small jurisdiction and those small jurisdictions can compete with each other because it’s so much easier to relocate now than it was. Back in those days

Emily Bron: and even to receive information about this or other place

Joyce Brand: and yes information Yeah, people did not have the information about the other city states that where they might say Oh, I’ll just move to from Venice to Genoa or even those relatively close cities in those days It was not easy.

It was the distances and the information was so much more difficult yeah, I think the thing now is there are so many opportunities because of technology to build I’m specifically interested in free cities that have a certain amount of legal autonomy, but even without legal autonomy.

There are a lot of intentional communities that can have a de facto autonomy just because they’re not part of a, or they’re not, I don’t know, close enough to the seats of power, I guess you could saY. the, to me, the ideal is to have legal autonomy so that you can make decisions.

Rules like those city states did the specific rules, but with the difference that these are run by entrepreneurs modern. City recities are basically run by entrepreneurs who design the kinds of rules and environment and services that they believe their customers will want, and the customers decide whether they want to live in that environment or not, and that keeps the person The people providing the government services, it keeps them honest because they’ve got to be providing the services they promised, or not only will they lose residents, but the residents can sue them for damages for not keeping their word.

So this is a, it’s a lot, largely due to the technology we have today and the information we have today, we can now make much better choices about what environment we want to live in. And be able to relocate to that environment in ways that just weren’t possible at all in earlier years.

Emily Bron: Absolutely.

And when I’m thinking about modern examples oh, slide might be different. Model of governments like Singapore, like Hong Kong. It’s a kind of city country on island. But as far as I know many or some project of Free City Foundation, they located inside of countries, and speaking about legal perspective here, I don’t understand how it’s working because the community, say intentional community or free city, legally on a territory of independent, say, for example, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, or other country it’s how it would not create kind of some, oh, I don’t know, tension or maybe contractual agreement between this particular territory or say, free city and local government, which actually owns the territory.

Joyce Brand: That’s one of the things that a lot of countries around the world are struggling with economic Problems of various kinds, and it has now been proven with places like Singapore and Hong Kong and Shenzhen and Dubai. It’s been proven that more economic freedom. Equates to greater prosperity and special economic zones have in the last few years, really, in the last, maybe 20, 30, maybe even 40 years have proven that you can have special territories with different rules.

Now, most of the special economic zones that have been in existence for a while, with the exception of cities like Shenzhen or Dubai or whatever, they. The. They’ve been more just industrial or like business parks with no residents because it is much more difficult to create an environment for residents than if it’s just for businesses and the legal autonomy the way that works and.

I can, for my example, I’d like to use Honduras because it is the most advanced legal autonomy of anywhere on the planet from the government. It was Hondurans who decided they wanted to bring prosperity to Honduras. They decided that their free zones, which were strictly industrial, had been successful to a certain extent, but not as much as they wanted and that by having special jurisdictions rather than just economic zones administrative jurisdictions and residents, they could bring more prosperity.

To Honduras and that was the plan of the Hondurans who conceived of the idea of free cities in Honduras and they passed a law called the Zones for Employment and Economic Development, ZEDE, in the Spanish acronym, and the ZEDEs were supposed to bring prosperity and they were designed to bring prosperity and unfortunately there was a lot of, The corruption in the government, and it took a while for the first, the law was passed in 2013, but it was 2020 before the first Tuesdays with residents broke ground, and that was Prospera and Ciudad Morazan.

And those two projects broke ground in 2020 and started building and they immediately. Did have the effect that they wanted even in their tiny, just beginning stages, they did bring jobs to Honduras, which was, that was the point employment and economic development. So they did, they were working, but they weren’t far enough along to be considered proof.

And then in election of 2021, the Honduran people We’re tired of the corruption of the government and they thought that this new government Which was admittedly very socialist admirers of Venezuela and Cuba. They thought that new government would be less corrupt and would bring the prosperity they wanted.

Of course, that was not the case. Obviously socialism did not bring prosperity to Venezuela or Cuba or any country historically. And so there was, That government was hostile to the ZEDEs. But in spite of that, because the people, the Hondurans who created the law were afraid of that happening.

They had written in a lot of guarantees and international treaties and things like that, that would prevent a new government from destroying the ZEDEs. And so they’ve continued to grow. And for three years, four years now coming on four years. They have proven more and more that they’re creating jobs and creating an environment that people want, Hondurans want.

Ciudad Morazan, where I live, is building, still building. There’s a waiting list for people that want to live there. In spite of the government opposition. So it is proving the value of the model. And that’s what I write about in the book pioneering prosperity, the Morrison model for free cities, because that type of governance, which is voluntary entrepreneurial.

Contractual is attracting people and creating a community that is the people that live there are not necessarily libertarian or they’re Honduran working people and what they want is a safe environment to raise their families, the chance of jobs. The rules that they can live with. I’d say probably security is the number one issue because Honduras is a very dangerous country in on the mainland.

The goals and design of Morazan is to bring a better quality of life to Honduran workers. Now, Prospero, the other Zedé, is on the island of Roatan, which is a, resort island. Appeals much more to, like wealthy Westerners who would like to move and live in a a beautiful environment.

Yeah it’s a little bit more expensive, that it’s a very different market. And to me, this is really important because it shows that free cities, Two free cities that are created under the same Zeta law can be so different. the people they serve, the customers they serve. The customers of Morazan are mostly Honduran workers.

The customers that Prospero serves are mostly Western entrepreneurs cutting edge technology people. There’s a lot of biotech, fintech different kinds of technology that they can do there under that law. That’s not possible other places. So as far as, I expats relocating is probably more attractive.

People were probably more attracted to relocate to Prospera than to see it at Morrison. But even there, digital nomads, we have digital nomads who spend various amounts of time throughout the year. And they come and go because that’s what digital romance do. But it’s a great place to it’s like nickname bootstrap city because it’s a great place to bootstrap an online business.

Now that’s more for new entrepreneurs than for your audience who are just, who are over 50. But there are entrepreneurs over 50 who are also interested in bootstrapping new businesses or online businesses who could also benefit from it. But again, I’m not trying to sell people on relocating to Ciudad Morazan.

Emily Bron: We are speaking about Variety of models for different people. And opportunities to be surrounded by like minded people, which will be my next question about. And I believe the more type of cities or eco villages will be developed it will show different options. Yes,

Joyce Brand: absolutely. And that is really the whole point is to be able to experiment with different types of rules, rule sets, governance, rule sets and governance can be the same thing we’ve in the U. S. and Canada. We’ve gotten so far away from those founding principles of. individual liberty and personal responsibility that the countries were founded on, especially the U. S. The Declaration of Independence in the U. S. Consent of the governed. We no longer have that. We no longer have the kind of I don’t know, values that the country started with.

And that was why I wanted to leave the U. S. was because I saw the loss of freedom, that the changes in the culture were making it more difficult for people to to serve their fellow man, to start businesses. It used to be very easy to start new enterprises, to be innovative, to create new.

means of serving customers. And that’s changed in the U S. And I think the same for Canada, that more and more regulations have piled on more and more of the larger companies have captured the government through various means campaign donations or capturing regulatory agencies or whatever that it’s now much, It’s more difficult now to create a new startup, innovative company in the U.

S. than it used to be.

Emily Bron: And the same in Western Europe, I believe, is, variations but in different countries that’s why actually stagnation is started. But, now you touch the point that brought me to another question. Like which I’ve had for years so actually, search for the freedom, desire for the freedom.

It’s, and there is different definition of freedom. It, belong not so many people actually thinking about it. When I started in my circle, the conversation, even between educated people, with kind of aspirations that I assumed I’ve had and have people, so I realized.

Historically, it was important for small percentage of people in each society. To be fair, other part of society want just to live good, to have their life. Yes, with certain freedom to exercise family and business interest and obligation, but Freedom in a big sense. It’s not for everyone and historically from whatever I know only small group of people like a pioneers were leading this movement and were writing books and they’ve had the, meetings now it’s online word conferences with desire to of creating such new country, new society, like United States happened, at the beginning.

And after couple of generation, other powers of majority were taking over. And from historical perspective, it’s happened many times how you can be sure that it will not happen with Free City Foundation because of nature of people, and with all respect.

People are more interested as, last year proved to me, even in democratic society. Actually, it was part of my big disappointment because I thought when people for several generations were brought in a free West, like in United States, in Canada, in in United Kingdom and others, it’s in their blood and breath.

And when I’ve seen how quickly people can be. Not only brainwashed, but actually turned to completely different direction. I thought What is the value of all this? No, I believe in value of previous generation, like you have constitution, you have all this nice proven by time, not just scripture, but, working laws, which can be so quickly, not quickly, but in historical perspective, turning on by people who are working speaking about using the same nice words, but actually doing some activity underneath.

Joyce Brand: Yeah, I know what you mean. The most people don’t really want to think about freedom and that sort of thing. They want to be comfortable. And it’s historically it’s like empires rise and fall. Rome with its bread and circuses Rome was an empire, but the fall took hundreds of years, but it was, The people voting themselves more freebies, goodies from the government.

And that’s exactly what’s happened with the United States in the sense of people, the majority, if you have majority rule. Then the majority is going to want to get free stuff, which has to come from the productive people within the society. And that’s natural, that’s human nature, but the productive people in the society, the people who want to build things, start businesses innovate, create new new ways of doing things.

Those people are the ones that are most likely to Value freedom because they need it in order to do what they feel called to do, which is generally, serving their customers. You’re right about that small percentage. That’s the people who are interested in finding freedom.

Unfortunately, the whole planet is now divided into about 200 or so nation states, which claim territory, claim all the territory. And so finding a place where those productive entrepreneurial type people can build things, is becoming more difficult. And that’s where free cities gaining autonomy. We’re the productive people.

We’re gonna come. If you give us a territory where we can have more freedom. We will build the things that you need that will benefit the surrounding area, maybe the whole country. And that’s why I believe that free cities will work because as things become more difficult for some countries they know they need more prosperity like Honduras.

Honduras is a very poor country. They knew they needed more prosperity and they knew the way to do that was to bring in productive people. Give them the environment where they could start new businesses and create jobs and that sort of thing. That’s not something that can be done by a government.

And it’s, the U S and Canada most Americans and Canadians don’t really think about. And English Europeans too. They don’t really think about where does prosperity really come from.

Emily Bron: And I’m surprised why. Why they were not educated in school. Why they were not it should be in bottom of fabric of society.

But it was turned another way. And I would even say when pendulum. What pendulum obviously moving to the left over the years, how all this new free cities can develop and prosper together with the left winning government of this or other countries?

Joyce Brand: Yeah it is a problem. It’s something that has to be dealt with, that’s for sure.

And the thing creating The laws the safeguards is difficult and it doesn’t always work because obviously the current government, like in Honduras, they’re the ones to have the guns. And even though they’re breaking their own laws, you can’t stop them from breaking their own laws because they have a monopoly on.

That’s what a government is. And it’s an issue that it’s the biggest challenge that free cities face, is creating a relationship with the host country, where the host country continues to understand that it is to their benefit, the host government’s benefit, to allow the freedom for producers to produce and I don’t have an answer to that.

I don’t know that any anybody has one answer to that. I know a lot of people are working on it. And for me, that’s what gives us hope. And so many of the people that are thinking about relocating to another country because They’re not happy in like Europe or the U. S. or Canada. The reason that they’re thinking about relocating is because it’s becoming more difficult.

They are quite often business people. They’re people who’ve had businesses for their whole lives or most of their productive adult life. And they’re seeing the difficulties and continuing to produce. It’s becoming harder for them to serve their customers, to produce the goods that they produce, goods and services.

And so they’re looking for a way to relocate. A lot of those people are over 50. just because you’re over 50 doesn’t mean that you’re not producing anymore. Even when you’re over 65 or I’m 75, you still want to be producing something. You still want to be creating something and finding people you can serve.

And that’s those are the people that I think are most interested In and get most hope from the fact that there are people working on free cities. There are people that are doing that terribly difficult work of negotiating with governments to try to get the assurances that they can create a jurisdiction with enough legal autonomy to.

To create a business environment and attract residents, attract workers, attract. There’s no conflict between the companies that need workers and the workers that need jobs. That’s a pretend conflict that’s been created by people who want to take advantage of both. The companies need workers and workers need companies, and if we can create jurisdictions where to bring those people together, the people who want to create businesses that serve customers and the people who want to work for those businesses, Or the people who want to work, period, who are not looking for just totally free handouts.

That’s what gives us hope that we can create those jurisdictions that will allow people to find the work they want to do, whether it’s creating a company or working for a company that’s innovative. The fact that Morazan and Prospera are continuing to exist and grow and prove their value can give hope to everyone that more jurisdictions like that can be created, more countries can be persuaded to allow pockets of freedom within their countries to attract the economic prosperity, economic development.

and prosperity that their people need. And that’s why I do my work, the work I do. It’s why I’m trying, why I’m promoting my book to let people know that yes, there are free cities. They’re working, people are working toward it. And so there is hope that you can find exactly the kind of place that you want to live, where you really want to relocate because it has the legal structure you want, the rule set that you want, the environment you want.

All of those things come together, and all of them are things that people have to consider when they’re thinking about relocating.

Emily Bron: Absolutely, and what I was thinking about listening to you and digging back in my knowledge of historical examples and models which work I have such a question.

In I agree when there is economic zone and opportunities for people to create and work, it’s excellent, but people are still, interesting creatures, I would say, they have, first of all, and when we’re speaking about this hubs, which attract people from different cultures, different backgrounds.

People have different vision about how to live together. People have different expectation. People have different rules that they used to have and it’s in their blood. Even they didn’t think about it because it was normal when they were living, back home in their communities. Common ideas.

Shared values and beliefs would or should unite people to live together in the community or in city, but I’m speaking now about community, living community, and share some responsibilities under the Free City Private Contract. Because I believe that without common ideas, it’s I believe, and shared values, it’s I believe, Impossible to people to live and prosper together.

Joyce Brand: Yes. That, that is the beauty of the Free Cities concept. Is the decentralization. That you can have so many different communities that can find the rules that give them the life they want. People are so different. And the technology that we have now communication and transportation, especially give us opportunities to find like minded people and gather with them in specific places.

Even if we can’t change the government, we can’t convince the government to give us legal autonomy, this is where places like intentional communities come in, that they can find a sort of deeper De facto autonomy just by gathering like minded people to live in a certain place together and those people can make their own rules.

They can set their own norms for what they expect from each other. And that’s it’s, it may not be part of the actual Free Cities Foundation what the foundation is tracking. But it’s still along the concept of free cities. They’re free communities. They’re people with very different values.

Can gather together. This is I think like the network state concept where people gather online because of the ability to communicate with people online, like minded people can find each other and if they can agree on a territory and someone to buy that the land there or a way to finance buying the land there, they can create it.

The physical community as well. There’s some question we don’t know yet as far as depending on how successful these communities are, if they will get have problems with the governing host nation that wants to control everyone. That is the whole idea of a government is to control everyone.

So we don’t know yet. That’s a matter of experimentation. I think it’s worth experimenting with. And there are some countries where it’s more, where it’s easier to do that kind of thing.

Perhaps a country like Mexico, which has less respect for authority for its own government. One of the unfortunate things about the U. S. is so many people still think that the government has their best interests at heart. And so they are they tend to be more obedient to whatever the government imposes, as we saw during COVID.

But that there are some places, I was in Mexico during COVID, and there were some rules that communities, so had to follow.

Emily Bron: Mexico was outstanding. I would say during the COVID and I was following the news and I was traveling during the COVID. I’m traveling in Mexico every year through different states. It’s I would say more common sense rules were employed in Mexico comparing with other states. All other countries in the world.

And that’s why I believe the current prosperity, it’s one of the sources, the current prosperity, because people who stopped in Mexico, like foreigners, they actually like it. And they decided to buy their property or maybe return after then and buy land or actually to put the business over with all issue Mexico had.

But it’s yeah, it’s different topic and I think in my sense and my personal interest actually was concentrated on Mexico lately coming from other different countries that I was working with because in Mexico it just many different eco living, intentional community and plans to build different type of communities or free city models are prospering.

And I believe Mexico will really display in the future some results of this, searches.

Joyce Brand: And Latin America in general, I think was a little bit. Not all the countries in Latin America, but some countries in Latin America were a lot more relaxed about the people didn’t take too seriously the orders of, of the government, mandates of the government.

They they accepted the ones that made sense to them and rejected the ones that didn’t. But there are other parts of the world that certainly I’m not familiar with, that I think had similar experiences. I understand Africa was very open during COVID and they had very few deaths.

But I don’t know that. I’m, that’s way outside my knowledge. Yeah, that’s another topic, and I don’t know about that but if you find a place that is less, that’s more common sense, rather than oh, if the government says it, it must be true, or we have a media that depends on the government for its access, and therefore, it has to follow the government guidelines if you’ve got a place like that, and that, it takes some research to find those places, and even certain areas.

Of certain countries can be different in that respect. I think the important message is to be aware of what’s out there, that there are maybe more possibilities than people think there are. And if you have the means to found or fund a free jurisdiction, then that can be a marvelous opportunity.

So it depends on the individual. It always depends on the individual. What are you looking for? If you’re looking for, if you’re older and you’re looking for a place to retire, where you have more freedom, there are a lot of opportunities and you have to look around if you’re still running a business or want to run a different business or want to grow a business, then looking for jurisdictions can make more sense.

So it totally depends on each individual’s values and desires and what they want from where they live.

Emily Bron: And here I would like to speak a little bit more about the eco living model. How Will the eco living model, and here we have several models as well, for intentional community projects, in practice in Free City Foundation, differ from well known historical projects, like the kibbutz, intentional communities, which were developed, in my knowledge, the only one in type of successful intentional communities development in historical sense in Israel.

And even there, there were several direction. There were more socialistic based and more capitalistic based community, but successful model it was collective farming or industrial production, which still works. And another form that I am familiar, Soviet collective farms, which were based and organized based on the ideas.

How intentional communities of this world that you are promoting different from the known models.

Joyce Brand: That’s a question that’s really a little bit outside my area of expertise because I don’t know that much about, I know that there’s a lot of intentional communities that have different models that are looking for different goals that have different shared values and interests.

The models that I know about, I’m aware of a movement or called Freedom, which is building intentional communities in Portugal and Spain that are away from the cities and nature oriented and using technology to grow food to live a more nature based healthy life. I don’t, they’re, I know they’re building, I know they’re looking for residence but again the, this is a new movement.

I

Emily Bron: will invite Orsofer, which I know and I was speaking with, and I already asked similar question to Or, because the model is and I was asking him directly or I’m trying to create new type of kibbutz in Portugal or Spain and I don’t know. It was joke. Oh, no. No, he was serious saying yes, but it’s capitalistic based Kibbutz, because you have all this element.

Okay, I’m removing this question because I have so many other questions for you. And considering the diverse approaches to establishing a free city, for example, particular administrative regions you mentioned, c states network states, eco-living which model aligns most closely with your principles for better governments like described in your book and why?

Joyce Brand: The Moore’s own model for free cities, which is What my book is about mostly, it’s free cities in general, but specifically the model that I think is best for the best form of governance is when there’s a unified, where there’s an owner of the land and title is maintained by that one owner and that one owner Is then responsible for creating the community, creating the environment, creating the rules that people want.

I think that model is the most shows the most promise because Almost all of the older other models involve some kind of let’s get together and vote and the majority rules. And I think when the majority rules, it’s like what you said. About the majority of people are not interested in freedom.

And when you’re letting, when the community is being ruled by people who are not interested in freedom, it may be founded by people who are interested in freedom, but then it’s allowed to be ruled by people who are not, you’re going to get the whole breads and circuses kinds of things.

You’re going to get people voting for whoever promises them the most freebies. And that’s, I think that’s dangerous. I think it’s also voting is also counterproductive for the people who do it because it’s certainly counterproductive for the people who want something different from the majority but even for the majority, they’re voting for things that sound good to them, but they don’t necessarily, there’s no way that they can spend the time to really learn about all those issues that they’re being promised.

Like the politicians are promising them all these things that we’re going to do that will make this better. But there’s two basic problems. One is that you don’t know whether the politician is going to keep their promise. But the other is even if the politician keeps their promise, you don’t really know whether that’s, whether that even makes sense.

So many politicians talk about things that make no economic sense. If a politician is saying we’re going to, we’re going to tax the rich and that’s going to pay for everything. That shows a totally, total ignorance of basic economics.

Emily Bron: No, it’s what Marx told. It’s it’s a line from the Marxism.

I immediately recognize it and people think that it’s something new. It was all played before.

Joyce Brand: People think, Oh, that sounds good. I’m not rich. So if I can get money from the rich people to pay for the things I need, this is great. I’ll vote for that guy. People will vote like that because they don’t understand basic economics.

They don’t understand that. This is not going to work. All you’re going to do is drive away the people that could create the wealth that would benefit you.

Emily Bron: Joyce, I can tell you, I was speaking even with pretty educated people in Canada United States, with degrees in economics experience working in different consulting.

And they were telling me not exactly this example, that it’s good to tax the nettle. How it can be good? You understand how economic are working, how is it country need to invite people with ideas, but you will repel them off. So what is good? It sounds good because it’s what populous like to hear.

You just say the person was just offended. Like, How I am so don’t understand the deepness of this fairness and, fairness. Yes, when it should be fair and by the way, I believe this person relocated, she relocated herself to Nicaragua or whatever. And I wish her success because These ideas good when they sound on a book, but in real life it just show me that people absolutely not educated, at least in the history of last century.

I’m not speaking about going, back. It was mind boggling moment.

Joyce Brand: Yeah, it’s and see that’s to me representative democracy was such a major improvement over absolute monarchy that when the U S was established and we, the people will vote and we’ll decide and make the own rules.

And that was such a major step above absolute monarchy, but now with our evolution In a lot of ways, and especially in technology representative democracy does not make any sense because the people are wasting their time. The vast majority of people just want to have a good life, live peacefully, raise their families, have, maybe have work they like.

But they’re being asked and say, Oh, as a citizen, you have to educate yourself and vote. And so they have to vote for some politician that they don’t even know who they are. Whether the politician has any idea of what they’re talking about, whether the politician will keep their promise, whatever the promise is, or whether what they think will happen.

From those policies even if the policies are put in, will that actually happen? And most people will have no way to know that. Very few people really understand the way basic economics works. Even people with economics degrees, AOC is supposed to have this economics degree and she’s, she has the least understanding of basic economics of any congressman I can think of other than maybe Elizabeth Warren, but they don’t.

They don’t understand that all they’re doing if they’re trying to eat the rich, they’re just chasing off the rich

Emily Bron: No, they just activist with a degree and I don’t have any respect. Sorry for many institutions educational institution with high rank which Even a couple of years ago was dream of many parents to send their children if they have means and sometimes Parents even, put their savings because they believe that they give better future in educational context for their children.

Joyce Brand: Yeah, the educational system in the U. S. and Canada and Europe has gotten so bad. I know, especially in the U. S. That’s the one I’m familiar with.

Emily Bron: No, Canada is the same. And you know what? Many people around me, when I see in Facebook, and people who understand from Eastern Bloc, I would say from Soviet Union, who recognize the changes and who complain about what’s going on, what, and some of people like me went through the several immigration.

Till we established our life in Canada or United States say, okay, we understand that it, but where to go? What like, like there is no other place like only maybe Mars or other planet, which is not inhabited. And I didn’t won’t introduce yet because this topic is still new because I believe these people and many of them after 50 when they mean where to go they mean where is this idea like utopia island where I can comfortably relocate to and have at least Clothes lifestyle and comfort of lifestyle I have in Canada or say in the United States And as far as I know such a place does not exist Speaking about level of comfort because here you should understand and what are your values?

You cannot have all it should be compromised. What is more important for you? If level of comfort and actually more or less life without destruction, okay, be where you are and complain, I don’t know, inside your room. Or if you really looking for something, I believe that Free City Foundation and project of the Under This Umbrella Soon, it’s not today, but soon, we’ll provide living examples.

It’s why I am trying to bring this awareness to people. It exists. It’s developing. It might be not ideal, and it’s not for everyone, but it’s for the people who really value freedom in their, I would say, authentic definition. And here I have, question a little bit.

Which I was thinking as well, balancing profit motives coming from the Free City Foundation or actually any project of such a kind with individual rights and freedom is a delicate act. profit, because it should be profitable, and there’s our personal desires, rights, and freedoms. How do free private cities aim to achieve this balance, considering the long term implication for societal welfare?

People are living together and you know what in beginning sound like really exciting and really we have common goal, target to work on from the time in years. It’s very not easy work to live in such I would say closed communities. There’s appeal to find like minded people, but as far as I know from, Again, kibbutz life, when I was speaking with people who spend life in these groups, it’s actually intentional communities and they’ve had pretty strict rules which they changed over the time.

It was not carved stone and it’s not for everyone that people who at the beginning were attracted to such, model as we’re all developing or our needs are changing. We’re disappointed. And here I’m speaking about profit motives, which is even more complicated, element of society.

I,

Joyce Brand: the example that I can use is Morison. That Massimo Massone is the founder of Morazan. He’s an Italian businessman who built a conglomerate in Central America over about 20 years. And he wanted, his idea was to create a city that allowed a better quality of life for Honduran workers than what they were able to get anywhere else.

And that was his idea. course he intended to make a profit at it because the only way that something can stay in existence is if it’s generating profit. If it’s not generating profit, if it’s like, Oh, I’m going to make this city for the Honduran workers, but I don’t expect to make any money. You’re going to run out of money eventually.

And then it dies. So it has to be profitable. So balancing profit against individual rights, Is the way to do that is to create a rule set that makes sense to the people and and communicate that. So all of the the rules and the norms and the laws, everything that applies to Ciudad Morazan is on the website for morazan.city.

And people can go there and they can see exactly what it is. Now, individual rights, one of the things that and culture and values, one of the things about Ciudad Morazan, there is one rule that’s very foreign to Honduran workers, that it was something that they had basically never heard of and thought was stupid or whatever.

And that was, and this is, seems like a very Sort of simple, too simple an example, but one of the rules is that you can’t throw garbage on the ground. You can’t throw your trash on the ground. You have to put it in garbage cans, receptacles, trash barrels, and In Honduras, for a number of reasons, this is not part of the culture.

It’s, there’s, people are used to throwing their trash on the side of the road or basically anywhere. And this is, that, this is a foreign concept and certainly not a social value to anybody, but they were told, if you want to live here, this is one of the rules. And the reason they were told was because it was such an unusual rule.

But what happened was the, what experience showed was this particular rule ended up people had to follow it or they would be kicked out. And very quickly they adopted it. There’s trash barrels all around the community, so it’s easy to follow, and everyone deposits their trash in the trash barrel.

And now, the community. Ciudad Morzon is one of the cleanest communities in Honduras. And people take pride in that. Even when you have a rule like that is contrary to the culture or of your target audience or seems like it was something that people would object to, but it’s not a big enough deal to say, Oh, that’s a deal breaker, I’m not going to live there if I have to throw.

I don’t care about the safety and all this good stuff if I can’t throw my trash on the ground. Obviously, it’s a small enough rule that people could adjust to it. And now, it’s one of the things that they take the most pride in, is the cleanliness of their community. And so now, nobody would think of, even new people coming in, they don’t even think about throwing trash on the ground, because that’s not done in Ciudad Morazan.

Emily Bron: Yeah, if you see it’s clean and there’s this beans and it’s really attract people, specifically if it’s not common in outside citizen society.

Joyce Brand: And so that’s something that Massimo believed, that would create an environment that people would like. And his customers would like, and he was right. His customers liked that rule, even though they wouldn’t have expected to like it.

So that’s where an entrepreneur is thinking about what do my customers need as well as what they want. What they think they want may not be exactly what they need, but when you create it and they see that I hadn’t thought about that. I needed that. I didn’t know that I needed to live in a clean community.

Okay. But wow, this is really nice. So that’s where entrepreneurial governance and the profit motive, and he makes more profit if people like living there. He makes the rules that are attract, that will create the environment. That people will be happy in so they won’t want to leave and so that more people will want to move in and that’s why, there’s a waiting list.

He can’t build fast enough to satisfy the waiting list because. The people that live there are very happy. These are families that for the, for like the first time, they can let their children go out and play unsupervised. They can go out after dark and sit in public places after dark without worrying about crime.

Emily Bron: And where are they working? They have some industrial park or facilities to work on?

Joyce Brand: Unfortunately, the government threatened to expropriate any businesses that came into Ciudad Morazan, came into the Zede. They couldn’t shut down the Zede, but they could threaten the businesses that wanted to locate there.

So we didn’t get the manufacturing jobs in that we wanted and expected so had to pivot to a residential community, but there are a lot of factories around in the area and so the residents work in factories in the area. Or, we have a wide range. It’s not necessarily what you would think of as being totally like minded because there are doctors, there are it’s a neighborhood.

They do have, there’s a, what they have in common is that they’re not criminals because if they were going to, if they tried to commit a crime or even be a bad neighbor, they would get kicked out. Their lease would not be their, their lease would not be renewed. And they would have to leave.

So that’s what makes it a good community for the people that live there is that they know their neighbors. are going to be decent people that don’t cause problems. And we’ve got lots of families, lots of children. We’ve got a playground for the children, plenty of space. It’s a community that works and it works because the rules are right because people want to live there because they’re given something of value.

I think the main value proposition is the safety for the same price, that they don’t have to pay. Hondurans are used to thinking of gated communities as being places where the rich live. Totally outside the possibility of a working class Honduran living there. But they can afford to live in Ciudad Morazan.

It’s $120 a month for a nice two bedroom house. And that’s the unheard of, and that includes 24/7 security. So you can’t ask for anything better than that. And that’s why so many people want to live there. And then when they get there and they find that their neighbors are, nice, decent people, that they don’t have to worry about criminals being, living in the neighborhood, that really makes, makes it so attractive to them.

I really enjoyed living there. Now, it doesn’t have a lot of the amenities because it’s too small. It hasn’t grown enough to have a lot of the amenities that we’re used to in the U.

S., but it’s a nice place to live and nice neighbors. So that’s, I think that’s all you can

Emily Bron: ask for.

Yeah. For this price and this place. And I understand that just successful one of examples and other communities will take over and adjust it, adapt to their target auditory. In here, I have questions, which we’re going to conclude what other projects or emerging intentional communities would be a good match for 50 plus years old adults or like couples looking to move to communities where they can find like minded and freedom loving people. Can you name a couple of other projects?

Joyce Brand: I think there’s no other project that has the legal autonomy of Morazan. The and Prospera, of course, with people, it’s a little bit more expensive but it would certainly be a nice place for people to, over 50, to to live, whether they’re retired or still working or still running a business or whatever.

So Prospera is definitely a good place. There are growing, so many of the communities are, So new that they’re just getting their first residence in. And I don’t like I don’t know that much, that many intentional communities that don’t have legal autonomy. I know they’re being built. I know that they’re working, but I don’t know specifics about them to recommend.

But definitely keep. Keep an eye. I’m I’ve started a, my website is called morazonmodel. com, which will keep updated with news about new projects as they come up in the movement. And of course, the Free Cities Foundation website is keeping updated with this, the projects that meet their criteria as far as my advice is if you’re thinking about relocating unless you need to relocate right now, the best thing to do is to plug into the community so that you can see it’s happening fast.

It’s growing fast. Plug into the community so that you can see what projects are coming up.

Emily Bron: Thank you very much, Joyce. It’s actually one of the reason we have this conversation today, and I launched my podcast to inform people about the emerging new projects to get more information to understand how it’s working because any relocation process takes time.

And I believe for many people actually to implement even plan to relocate. It take exactly the time that new community would be growing and popping up in different countries and there is a different rules and jurisdictions. Thanks a lot for your insight, for the knowledge, for your enthusiasm for actually, for the mood at least energy I get.

That’s it. During our conversation and I believe we will meet again in some time where the more information will come because it’s a living project. It’s all in progress and progress it’s pretty quick.

Joyce Brand: Thank you.

Emily Bron: Thank you.

Joyce Brand

Author of Pioneering Prosperity and co-author of Economics and the Spiritual Life of Free Men, Joyce Brand seamlessly bridges the worlds of entrepreneurship and governance. Residing in Ciudad Morazán, Honduras, a pioneering ZEDE, she pens insights for the Free Cities Foundation and has been featured on platforms like the Foundation for Economic Education. Co-founder of the Morazan Model Association, Joyce is an avid traveler and challenge-seeker.

Welcome to the age of reinvention, where eco-living, free cities, and intentional communities are reshaping our world. These multi-layered topics inform and inspire countless individuals seeking to live among like-minded people and embrace selected lifestyles and personal freedom. Today, we delve into this visionary world, examining how particular jurisdictions can lead to better governance—a relevant topic in our rapidly changing world.

The Emergence of Free Cities

The concept of free cities offers an intriguing pathway toward improved governance. Prominent thought leaders like Joyce Brand advocate for these particular jurisdictions as a catalyst for change. Through her work with the Free City Foundation and her writings, Joyce challenges us to reimagine our societal and governmental structures. Her ideas inspire discussions about how Free City Foundation initiatives align with her vision of promoting governance through unique jurisdictions.

Historical Precedents and Modern Parallels

Drawing parallels between historical self-governing territories and modern free cities reveals intriguing insights. While ancient city-states once operated under hereditary rules, today’s city-states afford us the freedom to choose where to live due to advancements in technology and transportation.

Modern free cities compete on governance policies, allowing people to live by their chosen rules in a way that was impossible in the past.

Models of Governance in Free Cities

One of the significant points of attention in our exploration is the decentralized governance models proposed and practiced by free cities. Joyce Brand’s book highlights Moore’s model for free cities, emphasizing governance by landowners who naturally provide public goods like security, infrastructure, and legal structures.

This model is founded on voluntary, entrepreneurial, and contractual governance. It attracts individuals by offering clear, unchangeable rules, thus creating tailored environments for residents. The Role of Intentional Communities Across the Globe: Intentional communities are cropping up worldwide, seeking to establish autonomously run societies based on shared values and beliefs. These communities enable individuals to gather with like-minded people, fostering unique rule sets and norms contrary to the majority rule seen in representative democracies.

Despite the challenges, intentional communities represent experiments in living that allow for greater individual freedom within a supportive community framework.

Economic Implications and Challenges

Balancing profit motives with individual rights within these communities remain a delicate act. Profitability is necessary for sustainability, yet aligning it with personal desires and societal welfare is essential for long-lasting impact.

Through examples like Ciudad Morazan—where the community thrives due to a conducive rule set—entrepreneurs have demonstrated the potential success of such governance models.

Conclusion

As we continue to explore and engage with the concept of free cities and intentional communities, we are reminded of the vast potential these models hold for societal transformation. They offer solutions to governance challenges by allowing for experimentation with rule sets and creating environments conducive to innovation and prosperity.

For those seeking to live in communities driven by shared values and personal freedom, the future offers promising opportunities to relocate and thrive in these emerging societies. Stay informed, engage with the evolving landscape, and consider how these vibrant new communities might alter your governance and personal freedom perspective.