Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 2-May-96 Re: CryptoAnarchy: What's w.. by Black Unicorn@schloss.li
I must assume either
1) He is not intimately familiar with the system of U.S. taxation (even if he is pro-high-tax, calling the current system 'just about right' is folly).
No tax system will ever been perfect, but income taxation is a good system of taxation. Income taxation inevitably requires some accounting costs, but these costs should be going down with advances in computing technology and other technology. The goal should be to minimize these costs. I would further suggest it is remarkably childish to think that a political system will not cause some unfairness in the tax code, because it is the nature of democracy to generate some unfairness. As long as the unfairness is kept within reasonable bounds as in the case of the 1986 tax reform, I don't see that this unfairness as a killing objection to income taxation. Of course, unlike most of the readership of this list, I believe that democracy is a good thing. The one concession that I will make is the possibility that crypto technologies could make income taxation an adventure in unfairness and ultimately futility. While, I prefer income taxation, VATs or sales taxes are an acceptable subsitute and one can certainly run a reasonable sized government on them. Outside of crypto-cyber-carrots, I have strong doubts that crypto of any form or sophistication will be able to circumvent consumption taxation. Consumption taxation would, of course, include a tax on the amount of information coming into your computer. I don't think that the government will have any problem determining the quantity of the information & since it will be encrypted anyway, I don't see the privacy worries. Michael Loomis "La haine de l'autorite' est le fle'au de nos jours." Joseph de Maistre