Eric Hughes says:
Charge you for performing services? Shudder -- how horrible! Capitalism! Ohmygod!
[...]
I read your words as an attempt to enforce a sort of libertarian political correctness, as insulting as that phrase will no doubt be to you.
There is no enforcement involved. If you truly feel that there is some sort of horrific "power relationship" between large banks and their customers, I would suggest that since the worst that they do to you is charge you for performing services that you are upset with the notion of banks charging for services.
The agenda of privacy is orthogonal to most partisan political positions.
I strongly disagree. The liberal and conservative agendas depend on control of the people in order to work. Privacy, cryptocash, etc. will all result in a strong shift towards a libertarian society -- without any need for people to try to produce such a society. When you can no longer trace money transfers, for example, taxation becomes difficult -- and any social programs you desire based on taxation become difficult. If you are truly a liberal, strong privacy rights are counter to what you truly want, and I would suggest that you reexamine whether or not you hold a consistant position, as your position in favor of privacy might be counterproductive to your position in favor of what now goes by the term "liberalism". I would be happy to see you favor strong privacy rights anyway -- but I am constrained by honesty to point out that I don't think strong privacy and a state based on coercive taxation are compatible. I do not feel that this list should be involved in discussions of libertarianism vs. any other political theory -- but I will point out that it was you, not me, that brought up the question of whether big banks are a good or bad thing, which is very much a political question. I'll happily steer clear of this entire topic if you will. Perry