Here is another letter to the editor from S M, remember you too can have your letter to the editor published here if you wish to contact me on Liberland’s social channels.
There’s going to be some real tests to libertarian thinking when we start looking at specific areas that traditionally have been under govt oversight by legacy countries.
I have been preparing an article on how a libertarian govt should approach food safety. Generally a libertarian govt will want zero or as few as possible paid govt workers to do oversight on an industry, and a big reason is because of cost. So we can make laws pertaining to food safety and make them at zero recurring yearly cost, so the laws aren’t necessarily the problem with cost (I talk about law problems at the bottom). Every western country has inspectors that physically do scheduled and surprise inspections on food facilities (this is also a separate issue).
So let’s say that Liberland goes down the same food inspection route as Norway. Here is what AI says about Norway’s inspections:
“In Norway, in-person inspections by food safety officials, conducted by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet), are primarily risk-based and vary by sector and type of food production or business. Inspections are usually unannounced and undertaken at establishments to assess compliance with regulations regarding food safety, hygiene, and other relevant laws. The frequency of inspections can be affected by available resources and the assessed risk related to the food activity.
For example, in the case of primary producers of leafy greens and soft berries, audits found that no inspections were conducted from 2022 to 2024, which was not aligned with EU requirements. In general, the inspection frequency for eateries was increased from about once every three years to approximately every eight months under a “smiley system” to improve oversight, representing about four times the previous inspection frequency.
The Norwegian Food Safety Authority uses a combination of inspections, audits, and documentary checks with a multi-annual national control plan to ensure effective controls across the entire food chain, tailored based on risk assessment. The official controls include physical checks by inspectors, who observe, interview staff, and verify documentation to ensure compliance with food safety and hygiene standards.”
So if Liberland copied Norway and inspected every business that has to do with food once every eight months, assuming 1 full-time food inspector can do 5 inspections per day average (AI), LL would need 1 inspector per 1000-1200 food businesses. Which I would guess LL does not have the space or need for that many food businesses, but you are still left with having to hire someone to be, at least, a part-time food inspector. AI says a food inspector in Croatia and Serbia makes around 12000 euros/year, so LL would probably need to add at least that amount to its yearly budget.
Also, I haven’t gotten this deep in my research, but there will probably be food testing that requires an entire scientific laboratory set up, and this would, of course, come with paid scientifically-trained personnel to operate.
A secondary issue in a libertarian country is: are businesses willing to give access to govt officials to do unannounced inspection visits? Now I take food protection extremely seriously (as a citizen with the most polluted food supply in the west), so I would lean towards “yes” that we probably have to have the threat of unannounced inspections to keep these food producers honest. I do not personally believe in blind trust for anything. But it is at least worth thinking about, since there has never been a truly libertarian country in the world and I don’t think a lot of libertarian minded people realize that they will still have to make concessions and trade-offs within a libertarian style govt. How will LL dairy farmers feel about a govt inspector showing up at his farm/home unannounced?
Another issue I have found via a different industry is the question: as libertarians how much control via laws are we willing to give to our govt in the desire for safety. This issue was brought to mind by the passing of a new bill in California mandating that children must ride in child car seats up to age 13 (raised from age 8). Obviously, California is a ridiculous joke of a state govt and not to be taken seriously by any critical thinker. But 84-96 countries have laws for child car seats, and it makes me think of the existing laws and how necessary they are for an informed citizenry.
Does a libertarian country just go ahead and pass “copy-and-paste” laws mandating child car seats up to a certain age (or height/weight)? Or does a libertarian country go down a different path?
S M