Feudalism in Vermont

The other day my wife was complaining about the state of our state, and she went so far as to call Vermont "feudal" in both attitude and action.

I was struck by her use of the word, and felt she'd hit on something. The more I thought about it, the more I felt she truly had summed up the situation here in a word.

Let me say something about my wife. When I met her almost twenty years ago, she was an unreconstructed liberal, a Dukakis-for-President type. She was, of course, very young then. The years since have been a long (and sometimes tortuous) learning process for her, leading to a degree of change in her outlook. I hasten to say that she hasn't become a full-fledged libertarian conservative. However, she has moved to the moderate spot on the political spectrum. She's come far is how I'd put it. Not that she's never won an argument or proved a point along the way -- she has, many times. She's as bright as they come; she just suffers from an overabundance of compassion.

Now let me say a word about feudalism, just so we're clear on the term. I expect we can all agree that feudalism, in practice, involved the strong lording it over the weak. Ideally, feudalism entailed mutual obligations between lord and vassal, leader and follower. In practice, of course, it all too often led to a powerful minority exploiting and oppressing the majority of the people. This eventually led to disturbances like the French Revolution.

The aspect of feudalism my wife had in mind is this concept of an elite minority determining the fate of the rest -- not, in Vermont's case, through blatant exploitation or oppression, but by the placing of strong constraints on the majority's freedom of action. In Vermont, the elite (i.e., the liberals, both elective and appointive, of the Burlington-Montpelier Axis) like to think they have the interests of the rest of us at heart. Indeed, they seek to provide universal health care, improved education, and other benefits for us peasants. However, as an insular leadership class, they dictate how these benefits are to be structured, paid for, and distributed. This doesn't mean simply creating and controlling basic administrative processes, which any government must do. It means that the elite has its own agenda that it imposes on the rest of us -- an onerous, costly, and often unfair regime that deprives individuals, businesses, and communities of both freedom and the responsibility that comes with that freedom. As the elite see it, they know best, and the rest of us should just fall into line.

Any objective person knows that this is the state of affairs in Vermont today. Property rights are more severely restricted than anywhere else in the United States. To open or expand a business, or even to build a home, is made difficult by the whims -- codified into law -- of a political class that wants to "preserve the Vermont way of life." The freedom to educate one's child is confined by the education lobby and the politicians and bureaucrats over whom it wields influence. An elite minority throttles initiative and progress in fulfillment of its own impractical vision for the state. Go along, and welfare checks and health care subsidies and other handouts -- in place of  jobs and opportunities to achieve prosperity on one's own -- are available. Buck the elite and you face the choice: go broke or leave the state.

After four years here, my wife has come to feel the effects of these state-imposed fetters on our freedom. And she's concluded that the situation here is best described as a form of feudalism -- a handful of lords determining how we peasants shall live. And she's right.

Comments

[Lazarus Long]

Listen to me peasant: Thou shalt wear thy motorcycle helmet, thy automobile seat belt and thy ski helmet at all times.

"Run away! Run away!"

[GreggB]

Didn't you guys flee the people's republic of taxachussetts? I'm no way defending MA but VT certainly is an ugly place.

[Jon Harrison]

There's no comparison between Vermont and Mass. Mass can far better afford its social welfare programs. It doesn't try to prevent job creation and development the way we do. Having lived in both places, I find Mass a rational place compared to Vermont. It doesn't try to micromanage insignificant problems as Vermont does -- it used to, but it grew out of the Great Society paradigm and entered the real world in about 1990.

This is not to say that there aren't incredibly stupid and corrupt things that go on in Mass government. The level of corruption is far beyond anything you'll ever find in Vermont. But the level of stupidity here is beyond anything known elsewhere in the USA (with the possible exception of some locations on the West Coast).

I came here for the rural lifestyle - to escape the overcrowding and suburban busy-ness of Mass. I still prefer it here. I just wish Vermont showed more (a lot more) common sense.

[Dennis Lukasczyk]

As the peasants leave how will the lords provide for the rest???

[Gordon Smith]

When I returned to Vermont in 2005 with my California-born wife and middle-school aged kids, I was hoping for that so-called 'Vermont lifestyle' - within reason. I had friends from high school and college that I re-connected with, and was able to buy season tickets to my beloved hoop 'Cats. But, when I realized my high-tech employer would most likely not rehire me when my three-year temporary term ended, we HAD to look for another venue. I'm a semiconductor guy - and the only other game in town just folded their tent. It was in some ways, disappointing to leave, but the political state of affairs in VT did not make me feel bad about leaving. I now live in the Berkeley (Burlington?) of a red state with a thriving high tech economy, and whose governor was recently lauded in the WSJ for cutting a business tax, because the fund that the tax supported was 1 and 1/2 times its sustainable level. Imagine that! It's only 1%, but that 1% falls to the bottom line. And although I live in a blue area, it is comfortably surrounded by common sense. I may be here for awhile, reading the Tiger, to gather some common sense from a place, Vermont, that I am conflicted about.