[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":155},["ShallowReactive",2],{"content-body-free-cities-updates-235-territories-ranked-for-freedom-early-bird-tickets-indiana":3,"transcript-free-cities-updates-235-territories-ranked-for-freedom-early-bird-tickets-indiana":154},{"body":4,"extras":153},[5,16,25,33,41,49,57,65,73,81,89,97,105,113,121,129,137,145],{"_key":6,"_type":7,"children":8,"markDefs":14,"style":15},"ca66901da7b2","block",[9],{"_key":10,"_type":11,"marks":12,"text":13},"5db0a51bd434","span",[],"This edition covers a new freedom index featuring 235 global territories, explains why $1,370 per year might be the per person governance cost a city should aim for, and highlights our new podcast episode taking a deep dive into the history of Sealand.",[],"normal",{"_key":17,"_type":7,"children":18,"markDefs":23,"style":24},"3fb0076f6609",[19],{"_key":20,"_type":11,"marks":21,"text":22},"420227073f79",[],"A freedom index that takes on the establishment rankings",[],"h2",{"_key":26,"_type":7,"children":27,"markDefs":32,"style":15},"6e549fbb652c",[28],{"_key":29,"_type":11,"marks":30,"text":31},"8c6fb3bd145a",[],"A new global ranking of 235 territories has been published this week, posing a direct challenge to popular freedom indices from organizations like the Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, and Fraser Institute.",[],{"_key":34,"_type":7,"children":35,"markDefs":40,"style":15},"68061c1353e0",[36],{"_key":37,"_type":11,"marks":38,"text":39},"e0ec2fa14b2d",[],"The Stateless Freedom Ranking 2026, compiled by Christoph Heuermann of Staatenlos, argues traditional indices reward efficient bureaucracy and social stability over freedom in the strict sense: the absence of compulsion. That, Heuermann contends, is why higher-tax welfare states like New Zealand, and the Nordic countries often land near the top of other indices, and why globally mobile sovereign individuals are sometimes misdirected.",[],{"_key":42,"_type":7,"children":43,"markDefs":48,"style":15},"cbc79231c1d6",[44],{"_key":45,"_type":11,"marks":46,"text":47},"f41aef8d8b38",[],"Instead, the new index grades 235 jurisdictions across six categories where hard data is available to support the assessment: taxes and expat arbitrage, monetary autonomy, economic vibrancy, property and building barriers, self-determination, and self-sufficiency. It also breaks federal states down to the legal micro-level, ranking Texas separately from California and the Swiss canton of Zug separately from Geneva.",[],{"_key":50,"_type":7,"children":51,"markDefs":56,"style":15},"f9cf86830e71",[52],{"_key":53,"_type":11,"marks":54,"text":55},"3314ca60a2dd",[],"The suggested weighting produces a Free City at the top, with Próspera ranking first overall followed closely by El Salvador. Because the weighting of each category is necessarily subjective, Staatenlos also offers the raw data as a downloadable spreadsheet so people can create their own personal ranking based on the factors that matter to them. Read the full ranking and methodology here.",[],{"_key":58,"_type":7,"children":59,"markDefs":64,"style":24},"d12dfb7eafd1",[60],{"_key":61,"_type":11,"marks":62,"text":63},"7983f82f52f7",[],"Last 24 hours of early-bird conference tickets",[],{"_key":66,"_type":7,"children":67,"markDefs":72,"style":15},"6ec2dc222a96",[68],{"_key":69,"_type":11,"marks":70,"text":71},"e4595614f3bd",[],"Free Cities Conference ticket prices rise tomorrow at midnight. Economy tickets go from $239 to $279, regular from $319 to $359, and VIP from $799 to $849, so anyone planning to join us in Próspera, Roatán, from September 3 to 6 has 24 hours to lock in current pricing.",[],{"_key":74,"_type":7,"children":75,"markDefs":80,"style":15},"fca05b008359",[76],{"_key":77,"_type":11,"marks":78,"text":79},"65f73fa64aac",[],"Two new speakers have also just been confirmed: Patri Friedman, founder of Pronomos Capital and a long-standing voice in the emerging Free Cities industry, and Per Bylund, senior fellow at the Mises Institute and a leading scholar of Austrian economics and entrepreneurship. They join a program staged inside Próspera’s Beta District at St John’s Bay, the first time the conference has been held inside a working Free City. Tickets and full speaker line-up at freecitiesconference.com.",[],{"_key":82,"_type":7,"children":83,"markDefs":88,"style":24},"da3be459a0bc",[84],{"_key":85,"_type":11,"marks":86,"text":87},"e979e781bd26",[],"What Carmel, Indiana teaches Free City builders",[],{"_key":90,"_type":7,"children":91,"markDefs":96,"style":15},"ba0eddcd90f9",[92],{"_key":93,"_type":11,"marks":94,"text":95},"beb63408213a",[],"Carmel, Indiana delivers every municipal service for roughly $1,371 per resident per year, around half what comparable American cities spend. A new long-form piece on the Free Cities Foundation blog by Alex Voss, CFO of Tipolis, examines how the city achieves this and draws out the lessons for new city projects. The core argument: governance becomes cheap when a community is behaviorally coherent and the physical environment is well designed. Carmel’s twenty-eight-year transformation under former mayor Jim Brainard combined a walkable, mixed-use core, more than 150 roundabouts, and sustained investment in arts and public space, generating a sixfold rise in the taxable property base and crime rates a fraction of those in comparable cities. The lesson for Free City builders is that changing the urban environment and improving its quality filters for the kind of community you want to build, which is what makes governance affordable. Read the article here.",[],{"_key":98,"_type":7,"children":99,"markDefs":104,"style":24},"62a0e82de83b",[100],{"_key":101,"_type":11,"marks":102,"text":103},"1af75bc1fe90",[],"Why Free Cities, not new countries",[],{"_key":106,"_type":7,"children":107,"markDefs":112,"style":15},"4d376123e96b",[108],{"_key":109,"_type":11,"marks":110,"text":111},"792749218a34",[],"Our latest Substack article explains why the Free Cities Foundation focuses its efforts on building Free Cities within existing jurisdictions rather than founding new countries from scratch. Very little of the world’s land is actually unclaimed, so the practical path forward is to reach agreements with existing governments that get 90% of what matters right. “Why Free Cities, Not New Countries” lays out the case in full and is the clearest single answer we have published to one of the most common questions we receive. Subscribe to our Substack for free to listen to the article narrated by our managing director.",[],{"_key":114,"_type":7,"children":115,"markDefs":120,"style":24},"c7fd80d95a2c",[116],{"_key":117,"_type":11,"marks":118,"text":119},"70819e259e1b",[],"Sealand: a six-decade experiment in opt-in governance",[],{"_key":122,"_type":7,"children":123,"markDefs":128,"style":15},"5b98f757ed91",[124],{"_key":125,"_type":11,"marks":126,"text":127},"0f957c86ac09",[],"Our latest Free Cities Podcast episode features Prince Liam Bates of the Principality of Sealand, the former wartime sea fort off the British coast that has stood for nearly six decades as one of the world’s most enduring experiments in opt-in governance. Liam, grandson of Sealand founder Paddy Roy Bates, traces how a pirate-radio outpost became a working principality in 1967, the legal cases that established Sealand as outside UK jurisdiction, and the 1978 coup attempt. He also outlines the family’s current plans to expand through land reclamation—a path with parallels to Venice, which began as a similar collection of small platforms in a lagoon—and Sealand’s move into eCitizenship and online community-building. Listen on Fountain and follow the Free Cities Podcast there for future episodes.",[],{"_key":130,"_type":7,"children":131,"markDefs":136,"style":24},"5eaf4e8d8f41",[132],{"_key":133,"_type":11,"marks":134,"text":135},"316cbba4d60d",[],"Final thoughts",[],{"_key":138,"_type":7,"children":139,"markDefs":144,"style":15},"4a06630d920c",[140],{"_key":141,"_type":11,"marks":142,"text":143},"6ca23bbe6ebb",[],"If what we’ve shared today makes you curious about the Free Cities movement, there’s no better way to learn more than to visit one in person. If you’ve been on the fence about coming to Próspera in September, the next 24 hours are the cheapest moment to commit. We hope to see you there.",[],{"_key":146,"_type":7,"children":147,"markDefs":152,"style":15},"9da7738c6100",[148],{"_key":149,"_type":11,"marks":150,"text":151},"94fa16a2a43c",[],"Your Free Cities Foundation Team",[],{},null,1788062469579]