At 11:27 PM -0500 3/28/01, Declan McCullagh wrote:
On Wed, Mar 21, 2001 at 11:10:03AM -0800, Tim May wrote:
When the State has the power to take monies and then decide how and when to dole them back out, it is using its coercive powers to regulate behavior just as surely as if it had banned behaviors outright.
Right. If only the big-government fetishists would think through this (not that it would change things) -- why not just let the Feds tax at 100 percent and dole out money to worthy causes, with strings attached?
The difference between 100% and 70% is not great. It serves the same purpose. (Many estimate the tax burden to be in this ballpark, considering that income to non-governmental agencies is taxed at a high rate (usually the max, 50 % combined federal and state), then the income and dividends to employees and shareholders is further taxed at a high rate (30-45%). Tack on property taxes, utility taxes, 8% sales taxes, energy taxes, special use permit taxes, boat taxes, luxury taxes....) These united states have allowed themselves to become something far, far worse than what the colonists were revolting against. A kleptocracy, with a Potemkin facade of freedom. --Tim May -- Timothy C. May tcmay@got.net Corralitos, California Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns