At 05:45 PM 4/15/01 -0700, Ray Dillinger wrote:
Escrow agents and reputation agents definitely help -- they can overcome a lot of difficulties involving who gets paid what and when. But now you've got a third party in your deal, charging vigorish when one of your main hopes was to get away from the tax man charging vigorish.
Bear
The tax man is not the same as your reputation agent(s). The tax man is supposed to prevent and punish coercison. That's all. You are not forced to subscribe to any reputation agents under threat of violence. The Council of Rabbis (or the Tribe of Granolaheads) does not seize your house at gunpoint if you don't support their efforts at maintaining what the tax-supported-USDA claims about cleanliness. Similarly future private Better Business Credential Bureaus transcend the State's limitations on credit hysteresis.