For all those speaking favorably of the twentieth century trends toward voluntary mandatory (VM) taxes, a la the VM taxes on PCs to support recording moguls, the VM taxes on paper to support writers, the VM taxes on hamburgers to fund heart disease research, consider where ever-increasing taxes take us: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/13169.html "Here's something to think about - while queuing up for petrol this afternoon (yes - I confess to being a panic buyer) I worked out that OPEC is charging $30 a barrel and our government is taxing us at slightly over $150 a barrel - ouch!" This is from the U.K., where tax policy is ahead of that of the U.S. Whilst we are (almost) ready to mcveigh the tax collectors and wipe out millions of burrowcrats, the Brits are quite sheeplike in accepting taxes which are several times the price of the underlying commodity. Germany, France, Sweden, Italy, and essentially all other European nations are similarly sheep-like in their acceptance of such taxes. This is where the "voluntary mandatory" taxation trend leads us. Taxes become an instrument of social policy as well as a way to line the pockets of the burrowcrats who go into government service. Frankly, tens of millions need to be liquidated. Thank Baal for unbreakable crypto. --Tim May -- ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, "Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.