Let me offer a random idea for a political or real-estate entrepreneur. That is, carve out a community of at least 10,000 people in a larger metropolitan area and have it be credential free. In theory, the 10,000 people would not have to live contiguously, although my guess is that in practice it would be necessary in order to have a concentration of voting power in a local area.

In the credential-free zone, schools can be run by and employ people without any formal credentials. Other occupations also can operate without licensing restrictions (ideally, this deregulation would include medical services).

I imagine that many regions and states would be too hostile to this idea to allow you to pull it off. But if it could be accomplished somewhere, it would be a great start for libertarians. I think that getting “off the grid” of the credential system would really solve a lot of problems from a libertarian perspective. It would take away the power of teachers’ unions. I think it would reverse the trends for ever-rising costs in the credentialized sector. It could demonstrate that education and health care do not require heavy-handed government.

This is sort of like the free state project, but on a smaller scale. The advantage of a smaller scale is that it would require fewer people. The disadvantage is that many states would be hostile to allowing a local community to be off the grid in terms of credentials.