Arthur Chandler says:
Right now, there seems to be a kind of social contract between us and the government: it protects us, provides free schools, etc etc, in exchange for which we have to pony up a fair share of our earnings. It follows, doesn't it, that the government has a right to enforce its laws saying that everyone must pay that fair share of taxes?
You are asking a political, not a technical, question. Personally, I don't believe there is such a thing as a social contract -- I never signed anything, and from what I can tell the terms on the social contract are ones I would never have accepted. I would be happy to purchase what the goverment give me on the open market -- I see no need for government to be involved in mail delivery or garbage collection or schools or any of the other things it runs -- from what I can tell all it touches turns to crap. However, this entire topic belongs on places like talk.politics.misc, not cypherpunks. I would suggest that it be conducted elsewhere. Perry