With the help of inexpensive FTL transportation, humans have begun to spread across the stars. Many planets have been found with near-Earth atmospheres, while many others have been found that can easily be terraformed to support life. Due to the costs associated with development of a new colony, most new planets are settled by wealthy corporate blocks after buying a charter from the council of planets to do so.

**The Liberty Colony**

There are, of course, exceptions. One such exception is the Liberty colony. The Liberty colony was founded and funded by a wealthy group of Earth-based libertarians as a place where a government could be constructed from the ground up in alignment with libertarian ideals. Taxes and restrictions on personal activity are minimal, but so are government sponsored programs in areas like medicine, education, and fire suppression. If individuals want access to such services, it's expected that they will work hard, make money, and buy them.

**What does the government do?**

Privatized services include virtually everything the public uses on a daily basis. Power lines, roads, parks, fire departments, and police forces are all privatized. All schools are private, as are all clinics and hospitals, none of which are under any onus to provide free services to those who cannot afford them. The only major government funded entities are the courts and the military. The courts hear cases and determine acceptable punishments, which are then carried out by private police, private prisons, and bounty hunters. Courts also have the power to give warrants for arrest and search to private executors as well as to give warrants for taxation, though again, execution of taxation is carried out by private tax collecting companies. In addition, the courts handle election and appointment of government officials, though the powers of those government officials are strictly limited by the constitution.

The military is responsible for defending the Liberty colony from hostile foreign powers, as well as for being the ultimate authority in suppressing illegal police activity. The military is quite strong, and in the past has shown a willingness to quickly resort to heavy firepower when police forces refuse to comply, so military injunctions tend to be hastily followed by police forces.

**What is the colony like?**

The colony as a whole is fairly wealthy, with an export driven economy that focuses on selling high quality warships and weapon systems to virtually anyone. Of course, with heavy automation of the construction process, the majority of the funds streaming in through the shipyards don't fall into the hands of the common man. Most people subsist on either being small-scale sellers of goods and services illegal on most other planets, through service-based jobs supporting one another, or through local industries like farming and upholstery.

How would the lives of these merchants, farmers and upholsterers compare to the lives of individuals who live on more conventionally governed planets with higher taxes, but more services?