Concept of Eden

by Earl Smith

Eden, as I envision it, will be an oasis set in a tropical environment teeming with lush, green forests, several waterways with tributaries leading to a vast ocean.

Its capitol city, Rand, will be a 10-square mile metropolis surrounded by sloping green hills and a quiet river that traverses the town and runs to the sea. Tall skyscrapers dominate the skyline, while its main thoroughfare, a wide boulevard lined on both sides with tall palm trees, will feature shops and restaurants and apartment buildings that look down on a bustling center city. The Rand Civic Opera and concert hall will house one of the world's leading orchestras and opera companies. Concert artists, actors, writers, painters, musicians, composers and others will flock to Rand because of its reputation for freedom of artistic expression and its free-wheeling lifestyle.

The surrounding suburban communities of Locke, Paine, and Rothbard mainly will be farming and manufacturing centers, although Rothbard will have the added distinction as the location one of the world's finest universities.

The economy will be built on tourism, not tourism featuring basketweavers and woodcarvers, but swank shops and department stores filled with high quality goods, such as the fine wines and coffees grown only in Eden. The citizens of Eden, mainly tourists themselves, are people who hold passports in other countries but come to Eden each year to rest and enjoy the comforts of a free lifestyle. Most of them will have paid about $1,000 apiece for 10 acres of land, which will be the only tax they will ever be required to pay in Eden. This $1,000 will go towards paying off the debt to purchase the land from its former owners.

Eden will support itself — that is, its courts, its small police force, its roads and highway construction projects, through a voluntary tax or Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods and services purchased in Eden.

The world's banking giants and major corporations also will flock to Eden, Rand especially, because of its no-tax policy and flourishing free-market economy. In a few short years, Eden will have built one of the world's major stock exchanges.

Every four years new directors and officers will be elected to execute the laws of Eden. No professional politicians or demagogues will be allowed to become entrenched in running the affairs of the country. Referendums, in which each citizen will cast votes by computers, will determine policy and the country's direction.

This is my vision of Eden, and I need your input: your criticisms, helpful hints and expertise in making it a reality.