RE: Why does the state still stand:

At 10:01 PM 5/14/96 -0700, blanc wrote:
3 problems which immediately come to mind:
. What if someone, hired on one occasion but fired at another, decides in anger to > "turn coat" and report everyone to the IRS (or other fine government agency)?
I expect that as corporations move to the net, they will not have the highly centralized structure of existing corporations. In any case this structure is in large part imposed by the state in order to facilitate tax collection. For example the existence of the "Human resources department" is largely the result of state coercion of corporations. In web businesses ones primary relationship will be with ones immediate coworkers, rather than the greater corporation. They will consist rather of a network of relationships -- contracting will move up, and the Keiretsu structure will move down. I expect the institutional structure will resemble that of the mafia -- a loose confederation of networks rather than tight whole. Thus defection by one party can only cause limited damage. In my judgement the Keiretsu form of economic organization is growing in large part because of improved communications and lowered communication costs. The Keiretsu form does not in itself facilitate tax evasion, but it does mean that the state has to apply coercion more directly to more people in order to collect taxes, and that its coercion has to be more visibly arbitrary and disruptive.
. What if a company does not pay as expected - other than adopting Assassination Politics, what method could an employee use towards getting their expected remuneration for work done?
In order to do business, one will need a good name (or good nym). If one does not have a good name, one will be poor. That is why I said "every man his own credit bureau".
. Wouldn't everyone need to have two jobs (or source of regularly accepted cash), in order to be able to pay for services where suppliers do not accept virtual cash transactions? (TCM has mentioned before about the need to pay for some things in tiny quantities - like quarters for a phone call, etc.)
Existing forms of ecash are costly and inconvenient, hence unsuitable for spending in tiny quantities. I expect that in the not very distant future every shop will offer its own cash, and that some of these will be in the form of millicents -- suitable for automatic lightly supervised transactions between computers. I expect the transaction cost advantage will eventually be on the side of electronic money, rather than physical money. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd@echeque.com

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The entity who calls itself "James A. Donald <jamesd@echeque.com>" is alleged to have written:
Existing forms of ecash are costly and inconvenient, hence unsuitable for spending in tiny quantities.
Excuse me? Here James, have a penny. - -----BEGIN ECASH PAYMENT----- oLmQgwABTaGgiqCukIFPkIECkIEBkIEEkIEBkYQxmiZEkIQxrJtEkIFPkoFAlJR9 yFLULqd42MJyDwR0ruJbWY5+uZSUo+mMUWbmdjpzJNZ9FGwRyEPh9iqQgRCSlEhl cmUgaXMgbXkgb25lIGNlbnQukoCUgJCBApGEAAAAAJCBAKGguKCrkIIBwJPgI5bU zb3E4EjtpuGYz+mutWIDdy7q8vMW9FtgCDNAsaakvTK1vyHv+qeVyu9im5u7eRoA ElARFDxpszgN6MV0jpYebNwHuCLHZgCmRVd9uKvV5RQgDHrgzrfpZqzeP+WWk+AI FXnhJgU1PoFlndx3LwCbM9D6c4afILXuqSSsz2viGDR0mT1VRaqaZTrTtdkWKkTq xh1vqh190ajm10SPQMMvujBMzDGiqZocPDKneSMKVww3Nuw74vXH+Z8yKCcgW5GQ gQGhoaE= - -----END ECASH PAYMENT----- That took me all of about 5 seconds. If you had Mark Twain ecash it would take you less time to accept that penny that it takes you to read "----BEGIN ECASH PAYMENT-----" with your slow human eyes. Regards, Bryce P.S. That is my "lucky penny"! It was given to me by Lucky Green when he was working for Mark Twain Bank and I was establishing my cybershop. We used it to test my shop. If nobody takes it (it is marked so that anyone can pick it up, not just James), I'm taking it back in a day or two. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2i Comment: http://www.c2.net/~bryce -- 'BAP' Easy-PGP v1.1b2 iQB1AwUBMZpFwEjbHy8sKZitAQGBTwL/UUWMOb3llDMPfzLGrF7TIli1DUUg7cyU xvhcuThdu39ZpcB0pESgzyefmR+vxJfniSVzc2GTitlipau9N8HHeESD12lrZ5M8 b1BO5x46/507/K1/dV491Ut27tCbgqHI =6nOu -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

On Wed, 15 May 1996 bryce@digicash.com wrote:
Excuse me? Here James, have a penny.
- -----BEGIN ECASH PAYMENT----- [... penny deleted ...]
That brings up an interesting question. What is the marginal cost to MarkTwain of such a one-cent ecash transaction? If everyone started sending each other these pennies, will MarkTwain go broke? Wei Dai

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Wei Dai probably wrote:
That brings up an interesting question. What is the marginal cost to MarkTwain of such a one-cent ecash transaction? If everyone started sending each other these pennies, will MarkTwain go broke?
Good question. Speaking unofficially and off-the-top-of-my head, I estimate the marginal cost to be "really really small". I mean, if you really want to know the marginal cost of something you have to determine which costs are considered marginal and which aren't. Is Frank O. Trotter's salary a marginal cost? I mean, if everyone in the world started sending each other Mark Twain Bank pennies, MTB might have to hire a second or third banker-type like Frank to keep an eye on things. But disregarding such speculation, what is the marginal cost of a kilobyte or so on Mark Twain Bank's internet connection? Or (snicker) a handful of CPU cycles on bank.marktwain.com? The biggest "marginal cost" is probably the salaries of the employees who keep those two things running. Regards, Bryce -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2i Comment: Auto-signed under Unix with 'BAP' Easy-PGP v1.1b2 iQB1AwUBMZvWn0jbHy8sKZitAQH9FAMAzfjFYSG4jjAhHgAzjf8s9YpG6M9NVCm1 PHqHffGtlEL/q+4grPhsLa/5IZuLGbhIOGfuhvDf4/dMM1GpORz+qpbC4RNR3CVp 4LYh4X23UxImIk5EuYd22vjMr+6Y0P4E =ZJ+m -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
participants (3)
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bryce@digicash.com
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jamesd@echeque.com
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Wei Dai