Libertarian Jobs

Miscellaneous General
1

What would be the most “libertarian” jobs? Both in a sense that they enable you to not have much to do with the state and in the sense that they are the most induvidualistic and let you be your own boss and set your own hours?

I`m thinking gambler and farmer so far albeit each of them has at least one major downside.

Gambling seems attractive at first as it is more doable with the onset of the betting exchanges and not only it leaves you being your own boss, but also the profits are not taxed. (Exchanges are UK based where gambling tax is set to zero for now.) However it is stil very hard to make a living of it and very few people have what it takes.

Farming passes the “own boss” test and even in buerocratic nightmares like the EU farmers do not need to partake in the pension and social scams. However the starting investment is huge even if orienting towards a labour intensive product like tomato (which mean you require less land).

What would be some other ideas? Anything that you do yourself?

2

Web-Design and/or Programming both immediatly come to mind, especially on a contract-by-contract basis.

3

Tax avoidance consultant?

4

Web-design seems like a good fit. Anything involving the internet where your products are not subject to any nation’s laws, as well as you being able to work on your own timetable.

If you feel like skirting the ‘law’, restaurant owner as well. Much of your income is cash so you dont necessarily have to report it, and you control every aspect of your business’ operation.

5

Arbitration

6

Any job or business that be can be done in the black market or underground economy. For an example cash only business that does not leave a paper trail.

7

I have had numerous home improvements, including a totally new kitchen, done by a gentlemen acting in the “underground” economy. He does better work than some contractors with licenses. Probably the prime example of a libertarian job.

8

But as FSK points out, even if you are not paying tax, you are still going to pay the inflation tax if you deal in FRNs.

9

Taking that into account (FSK always had very through blog posts, I don’t read it enough, honestly), I think web design would also be an occupation that would be very alternative currency friendly, at least on a contract-by-contract basis with individuals in the know.

I think an online version of the Anarcho Jessise Labour Note would work very well with web-design, specifically for repeat customers. Of course, the market for such a venture would be limited to only those in the know, however, you could easily break down a comparison chart showing people who typically use FRN’s that using your advocated alternative currency would get them “more bang for their buck”.

A further comparison to PayPal as an example of an alternative currency (and possible as an additional means of payment, where if one pays in a reduced amount of FRN’s via PayPal, they get a coupon or a digital copy of your alternative currency to redeem for use in additional labor in the future, etc.).

I also think this would help work around (but not eliminate altogether) the problem that labor notes present offline, which is if the currency is backed by only one’s labor initially, the amount of labor to be redeemed by the use of the currency is limited by the amount one has time to do labor for.

Depending on your skills, Web-Design would not nearly take this long initially, and most of the business might be in support & maintaining services given to websites you created initially (i.e. being on call & only being paid per hour spent on help & support, or being on retainer per month as tech support for the customer, etc.).

I’d imagine the labor to back up the labor note would be considerably easier to back up, & the amount cached from activity might almost resemble the amounts in say, micro-payments.

I think this would also play nicely with interested family members who are not internet literate but want that blog thing everyone’s been talking about. One would hate to charge (most) of your family members, anyways [;)]

10

I consult and provide agricultural services, mostly to wine grape growers but also to a lot of organic/biodynamic food producers. I don’t have to deal with any required licensing and try to exchange my services for goods as much as possible. I like working with winemakers who grow their own grapes, I’ve found that good wine makes a great medium of exchange! Haven’t figured a way around the taxes that’s safe for the family yet though, and I still have to accept dollars.

The web design/programming field seems like a natural. You can work from anywhere and payment can be electronic, which means you could get it in any currency you want.

11

The most libertarian job is whatever you can do to make yourself happiest without infringing on the rights of other people.

12

This, until people can be convinced that a free market will benefit them they’re not going to care about it. Despite everything that is said on these forums, nobody here would die for liberty. So to expect the average person to do so is just silly.

The “most libertarian job” is offering services to compete with the government, primarily defense, which would currently entail hiding ones funds from the government and avoiding taxation.

13

Agorist entrepreneur.

14

I think a job in the non-profit sector is what would be closer to a libertarian-type job out there. Here is what I have in mind more specifically. We create a non-profit organisation possibly under the cover of religion to qualify for tax exempt status - we can call it the rapture preparation institute, where we trade and produce goods to help us survive the “rapture”, bound to happen in an unspecified amount time.

The way that it works however is like a bank but instead of dealing with money, we trade non-taxable vouchers that are backed by gold (or other) and can be exchanged for goods between the members. The members are “employed” by the organisation and so, any transaction between the members are simply considered day-to-day business operations and, since they are not considered income, are therefore untaxable. The IRS would be let to believe that the organisation is simply simulating free-market ideals in order to optimize the efficiency of its operations.

Everyone will have the freedom to trade goods and make money (vouchers) doing so whitout being taxed for doing it. The organisation as whole may be taxed a lump sum (usually lower than personnal taxes) but since the exchange between members would create no wealth for the organisation, that sum will likely be zero (and if its considered a charity it will be zero by default). So everyone wins except the government, which is the goal.

15

Programming? Just as hard as gambling, but even more boring.

But you don`t get to set your own hours. You have to work around the client.

16

Marko, a “libertarian job” is not defined as a job in which you arbitrarily do whatever you want, whenever you want. Only God does that. If you’re providing a good or service (definition of a job), you will have to work around other people’s hours and preferences to some degree… that is the essence of a free market and the advantages of division of labor.

Farming is a good “libertarian job”. Web design and programming are also OK but the economic prospects for that field in the near future are dismal. As we see the bubble economy collapse, demand for paid web design and programming will fall off a cliff.

17

Poppycock; you’ve never heard of open-source before? Open-source is going to boom in the incoming recession / stagnation due to firms, clients, etc. looking to cut costs (the failure of Vista has also bolstered the outlook on open-source).

18

The problem is the number of firms and clients will crash as a correction to the malinvestments fanned over the years by Federal Reserve policies. There will be a glut of unemployed computer programmers. Furthermore there has lately been a huge oversupply of “white collar” workers in general, again due to the FED’s encouragement of the malinvestment bubble. The current famous recession has shown us that, we can’t yet build an economy based on Excel spreadsheets. For the near to middle term future, jobs in the commodities sector (such as agriculture) will be selected for by unfolding economic trends.

19

Every month computers become more powerful and cheaper, useful for more and more stuff. I can`t see programmers worry.

20

Moore’s Law will be temporarily suspended due to the economic malaise.

We’ll revisit this thread in 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, etc. and observe the conditions in the computer science field.

Really the only computer-related jobs that will experience growth in the near term are web design and propaganda gigs for Obama’s alphabet soup agencies.