By Patrick Hiebert, Founder and CEO, Veritas Villages
We Don't Do Left or Right. We Do Logic.
Let me start with a confession that will probably annoy both sides: I don't have a favorite team. I'm not left, I'm not right, and I don't own a hat for either one. What I am is logical. I look at a system, ask whether it works, and then ask who pays for it. At Veritas Villages, we want as little government and as little tax as possible, not because it's a slogan, but because every dollar a person keeps is a dollar they can use to build something, hire someone, feed their family or, if they're smart, buy some Bitcoin.
I grew up Canadian, so I learned about taxes early and painfully. It's a bit like learning to swim by being thrown off the dock, except the dock then sends you a bill for the dock.
What Just Happened on November 3
The U.S. midterms are done, and the shift was big and it was to the left. Democrats were projected to take both the House and the Senate. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed won the open Senate seat, beating Republican Mike Rogers by roughly 52 to 46 percent in the AP's unofficial count. El-Sayed ran on Medicare for All, an end to U.S. military aid to Israel and campaign finance reform, and he beat the Democratic establishment's own candidate to get there.
He wasn't alone. NPR reports that a record six candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America won House seats, among them Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez in New York, Melat Kiros in Colorado, Angela Gonzales-Torres in California, Donavan McKinney in Michigan and Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania. Add Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are already members, and the DSA's House presence roughly quadruples when the new Congress is seated in January. This comes a year after Zohran Mamdani, also a democratic socialist, became mayor of New York City.
Whatever you call that, it isn't a blip. Self-described socialists used to be the guests nobody invited to the party. Now they're helping pick the playlist.
Socialism Has Never Worked. Not Once. Not Anywhere.
I know the standard reply: "Real socialism hasn't been tried yet." It's been tried by the Soviet Union, Maoist China, Cuba and Venezuela, among others. Venezuela had the largest oil reserves on earth and still managed to produce a country where people lost weight and left by the millions. That takes real talent. If you can wreck an economy sitting on an ocean of oil, it's worth asking whether the problem was the execution or the idea.
And before someone emails me about Scandinavia: those countries are market economies with high taxes and a generous safety net, and they've said so themselves. They have private property, private companies, and open trade. Denmark's own prime minister once felt the need to point out that Denmark is not a socialist planned economy. That's a very different thing from what's being proposed by the people who just won.
Here's my real argument, and it isn't that nobody has done it right. It's that it goes against human nature. People are wired to want a reward in proportion to the work and effort they put in. That isn't greed; it's how we're built. Take that away and you don't create a more caring society; you create a society where everyone quietly figures out the minimum they can do.
A system that pays everyone the same simply cannot work. Try it at home. Tell my grandkids that the lemonade stand profits will be split equally among every kid on the street, including the one who spent the afternoon watching videos. You'll have one very hard-working stand for about a day and a half, and then a street full of kids wondering why the lemons aren't squeezing themselves.
Why This Should Concern Everyone
The Western world was built on a few big ideas: individual rights, property, rule of law, limited government, and the dignity of work. Those ideas grew out of a Judeo-Christian moral tradition that said every person answers to something higher than the state. When governments move in to be the provider, the referee and the moral authority all at once, freedom is the first thing to get squeezed out of the room.
I'm wary of any movement, from any direction, that wants more state control over your life, and I'm wary of any religious or ideological law replacing the principles of individual liberty the West was founded on. I'm not saying any particular winner of this election wants that. I'm saying we should all be paying attention to the direction of travel, and anyone who isn't concerned that the West is drifting toward bigger government, higher taxes and less individual freedom isn't paying attention.
So, What Do We Do About It?
Complaining is free, but it also doesn't achieve much. The practical answer is to build something better and invite people to join. That's what Veritas Villages is about: communities in Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua built around self-reliance, sustainability, low taxes and personal freedom, where you keep what you earn and decide how to live. Homes at Veritas Village - Atenas come with a solar system built into the price, so you can have no electricity bill at all. Our villages run as Bitcoin circular economies, which means a currency that no government can print more of.
You don't have to agree with everything in this article to want that. Left, right, or neither, if you believe your effort should be rewarded and your life should be your own, you're our kind of neighbor.
Come see for yourself. Contact us at info@veritasvillages.com and we'll show you around. The lemonade is on us (and it's not split equally, I'm afraid, because I drink most of it).