The Covenant of the Model Classical Liberalism City.

In my last blog on this topic I said this:
‘Now we begin to get a picture of who will compose the owners of the downtown properties and some of the basic elements of commerce. These property owners are the ones who will become a community, with a common interest in a prosperous city. In a later blog I will discuss the organization of the Association.’

For the lack of a better term we will call this group of owners an Association. There is much to be done by the Association and so membership needs to be quickly defined. All owners of private property in the designated downtown area which demarcates the tax-free zone are members. If there is any property which for the time being is considered ‘public’ lying within this boundary that entity does not have any membership rights.

Private ownership of property is the membership requirement.

This is where the philosophy of classical liberalism becomes extremely important since the next two steps are foundational. A covenant needs to be developed that honors liberty, justice and prosperity. And a governing body needs to be instituted, one that forbids economic interventionism.

An analogy will help here. If a weed seed is planted it will germinate and may very well grow very rapidly but it is ultimately undesirable. If the seed planted is classical liberalism then the fruits of liberty, justice and prosperity will nourish everyone from then on as soon as it attains maturity.

The essence of the covenant is the recognition that property rights are human rights. It is the covenant, then, that establishes and defines property rights and implements a process that allows for a constant refining of property rights so that those areas which are currently cloudy become more clear. Then protecting people and property from violence and fraud - which is the responsibility of government - can be accomplished without arbitrariness.

The Association necessarily has structure and it functions to serve the members and to represent well the City to the visitors. Removal of the possibility of ego-driven interventionism is one of the reasons the Association will not take on powers that are not given to it.

From among the members individuals will be nominated based on their service within the community (their virtuous deeds), again not because they have ego-driven schemes in mind. Initially the Association will have to decide how to allocate its representation. Do corporations have the same voting power as an individual? Do residents have the same voting power as businesses?

One good first step is to make electioneering a reason for disqualification. Those who serve on the Association will be the ones who are already serving in the community and are nominated because others recognize their deeds.

The Association is the steward of private ownership and it acts to attract capital by making the City a place where people want to come to visit, and shop, and do business and leisure. If Cedar Rapids is alert to the opportunity at its door to become a model classical liberalism city then those who stand at this juncture in history will be praised for their foresight.

This blog will be a repository of ideas, concepts and principles that support the philosophy of classical liberalism for the purpose of making Cedar Rapids a model city, worthy of emulation.

Submit your ideas to divineeconomyconsulting@msn.com.