At 13:31 1/28/96, John Young wrote:
While not directly related to technical crypto, a number of findings parallel discussions here about the diminution of personal and economic security. Samples:
My personal reason for mistrusting the Government is that it uses Coercive Power to steal money from me (via "taxes" such as FICA) claiming that I am buying Benefits for myself such as SS and Medicare yet it does not meet the obligation to supply these services under the promised terms when I need/want them. If SS and Medicare were run by a private company and operated the way the Government changes the rules, all of Top Management would be in Prison for Fraud (and a number of other charges). Any Benefits program that the Government uses its coercive power to force me to join and pay for should be REQUIRED to maintain the terms in place when the payments were collected (ie: There should be no unilateral alteration of the terms by the Government). The ONLY program that I can think of where this has even partly occurred is with IRAs (all payments prior to year X are treated under the original tax rules while payments into an IRA after that date have a new tax status). All other programs are subject to rules modification (ie: reductions of promised/paid-for Benefits) or Congress defunding at a moments notice.