- Oct 9, 1999
- 46,554
- 9,905
- 146
Rugged Arizona libertarians hilariously beg government to bail them out
"The libertarian paradise of Rio Verde Foothills is nestled out in the desert near Scottsdale, Arizona.
It was formed specifically to avoid the rules and regulations required for civilized society, and it is situated in dry, harsh conditions. For example, Arizona law requires developers to plan for 100 years of water use. Every new development has to engage in a process for securing water rights in compliance with the law. Rio Verde Foothills avoided that requirement by exploiting a big loophole in the law: It only requires it for subdivisions larger than five homes. You can guess what developers in Rio Verde Foothills did to circumvent that—they built five-home lots. For them, it was an easy payday, and the self-styled “rugged individualists” who chose to live there could brag about keeping government off their backs and paying fewer taxes. The area doesn’t even have a government.
For a while, all was good; Rio Verde Foothills was supplied by Scottsdale. Water trucks would roll out to a tap at the edge of town, fill up, then truck that water to individual homes, filling a standard 5,000-gallon tank buried in their yards.
But for years, the city warned that the agreement could not continue in perpetuity. It needed the water for its own growth. Rio Verde Foothills ignored the issue—until the day that Scottsdale finally cut them off.
Nothing says “AMERICA FUCK YEAH” more than putting up a house in the middle of a desert, without any regard to infrastructure, in a place designed to avoid laws, regulations, and government, and then crying when someone else won’t cater to your needs and whims. AMERICA!
Back in Arizona, Scottsdale is about to agree to a three-year extension of Rio Verde Foothills’ water, assuming it gets additional water from outside sources.
Ironically, those libertarians will get a temporary reprieve because of—you know it—government. "
^^^ My comment is that a thirsty libertarian will suddenly LOVE gubmint. Oh, and "wasserschaden" is not currently a real German word . . . but it could be soon!
"The libertarian paradise of Rio Verde Foothills is nestled out in the desert near Scottsdale, Arizona.
It was formed specifically to avoid the rules and regulations required for civilized society, and it is situated in dry, harsh conditions. For example, Arizona law requires developers to plan for 100 years of water use. Every new development has to engage in a process for securing water rights in compliance with the law. Rio Verde Foothills avoided that requirement by exploiting a big loophole in the law: It only requires it for subdivisions larger than five homes. You can guess what developers in Rio Verde Foothills did to circumvent that—they built five-home lots. For them, it was an easy payday, and the self-styled “rugged individualists” who chose to live there could brag about keeping government off their backs and paying fewer taxes. The area doesn’t even have a government.
For a while, all was good; Rio Verde Foothills was supplied by Scottsdale. Water trucks would roll out to a tap at the edge of town, fill up, then truck that water to individual homes, filling a standard 5,000-gallon tank buried in their yards.
But for years, the city warned that the agreement could not continue in perpetuity. It needed the water for its own growth. Rio Verde Foothills ignored the issue—until the day that Scottsdale finally cut them off.
Nothing says “AMERICA FUCK YEAH” more than putting up a house in the middle of a desert, without any regard to infrastructure, in a place designed to avoid laws, regulations, and government, and then crying when someone else won’t cater to your needs and whims. AMERICA!
Back in Arizona, Scottsdale is about to agree to a three-year extension of Rio Verde Foothills’ water, assuming it gets additional water from outside sources.
Ironically, those libertarians will get a temporary reprieve because of—you know it—government. "
^^^ My comment is that a thirsty libertarian will suddenly LOVE gubmint. Oh, and "wasserschaden" is not currently a real German word . . . but it could be soon!


