There is too much traffic on the Cypherpunks list for me - personally - to be able to follow a single discussion very consistantly (maybe I should write better filters...). So I will address your last email generally. I agree that many of my points are points about capitalism in general, but micropayments are the latest capitalist craze and serves to underscore some of these problems. Perhaps you are right that they can ameliorate some of the problems of capitalism, but I think there is also a great potential for abuse and profit bloating that will serve only to exascerbate the problems. Sometimes 'straw men' are needed to make example cases of what *can* happen before people leap ahead without thinking, and can only in retrospect commiserate with eachother about what did happen... the FUD that is associated with any new technology should be better analyzed by the few who care about the future rather than those who just worship the future to ensure that the decisions which are made by this almighty 'market' (again, I distinguish this from either the 'people' or the 'consumers') are the right ones. Again, I realize the market does not oppose this idea, but that doesn't mean that some people won't feel that the idea is being 'rammed down their throats'. Sometimes people forget that technologists and their venture capitalist backers aren't the best representative sample of the world's population, nor are they a reliable source of objective information about the correlation between the 'market' and the 'polit'. Micropayments might be a great idea (though I see potential flaws which, if addressed, would only serve to make the idea great in implementation as well as in theory - yet people will resist addressing these potential flaws and rely on hindsight to fix problems that do arise). I'm just proposing the ridiculous notion that this and other technologies be preceeded by forthought and public debate before their implementation. No matter how much one reifies techology, it all comes back to people in the end. ttl Stephan ------------------------------------------------------------------- This signature has been kidnapped by space aliens. If you find it you can call (415) 703-8748. I work for Studio Archetype, and they don't find any of this funny.