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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Agorist Example - The Midwestern Bread Club

I read an interesting post about a "bread club" in a midwestern city.

Someone had a hobby of making bread. They liked baking bread and sold some to their friends.

However, they did not formally organize their bread baking as a legal business. The person was baking out of their oven in their home. Some people install restaurant-quality ovens in their home; I don't know if that's what this person did.

If the person organized their bread baking as a formal business, the hassle would have been too great. First, they would have had to upgrade their oven to be compliant with government regulations, which would have required a huge capital expense. All the other hassles and regulations that go with a legal bread business would have been impractical. Further, since this business is unreported, I don't know if the bread baker is reporting his income for taxation.

The baker was only interesting in baking part-time as a hobby. If the baker organized a formal business, he would have to make a 50-60 hour/week commitment to baking, to justify the cost of compliance with government regulations.

This is a good example of an agorist business. The person only baked once every week or two. The baker only sold to his trusted friends, minimizing the risk of a government raid. By avoiding government regulation and taxation, costs were dramatically slashed. The people buying the bread get a greater quality, at lower price. All the participants in the transaction win.

There is only one obvious flaw. This agorist business owner is using Federal Reserve Notes as money. In order to be truly free, you need to switch to a monetary system that is sound. Whenever you conduct a transaction with Federal Reserve Notes, you're implicitly supporting the Federal Reserve an its policies. In order to be truly free, you have to use a fair monetary system. On the other hand, if you get Federal Reserve Notes and immediately trade them for hard assets, you're minimizing the extent to which inflation steals from you.

Another problem is that this baker must exist in anonymity. It would be nice if he could share information on his methods and tactics anonymously, without exposing himself to risk. I think that interested amateur bakers in other cities should also form a "bread club". This amateur baker would lose nothing by sharing his methods, provided he can do so anonymously.

It's nice to hear of some success stories. I'd like to see things like this happening on a larger scale.

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