Jason Solinsky wrote:
Lets ignore the dictionary, which says you are wrong, and return to the issue. Can a government (in cyberspace or otherwise) wield the authority to tax and regulate behavior without guns?
If you inspect the matter carefully, without the threat of force there could be no government. Otherwise, how would they collect taxes and tarriffs?
Easily. They could deny you access to services of greater value than the tax being imposed. MIT weilds this power quite successfully. This thread
Jason is confusing markets and governments. A movie theater that sells tickets is not "taxing" its patrons--it is selling access. A university that charges tuition is not "taxing" its customers. (I will grant, and always have, that various businesses and universities and whatnot have various links to government: franchises, special enabling regulations, subsidies, etc. These complicate the issue, and make for what economists used to call "mixed" markets. Libertarians and others decry these mix-ins. But I don't take this to be the point Jason was making.) To call all negotiated prices "taxes" is, bluntly, absurd. It also cheapens the language by throwing away the essential distinction between market prices and taxes. In any case, something is a "market price" if one can walk away from the transaction. I know of almost nothing the U.S. government calls a "tax" that taxpayers are free to walk away from, to not pay (and thus not receive the service). If Jason is arguing that goods and services will be bought and paid for in cyberspace, who could disagree with this? They're just not taxes. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."