-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 2:46 AM -0400 11/1/07, John Kyle wrote:

Bill Gates, who wants himself and other wealthy people to pay more taxes because they owe that much to society

These morons, especially those with sky-high IQs :-), who think that The State (upperlowercase intentional) is "society". It's like saying that The Church (upperlowercase intentional) was "society" in the middle ages. Again, as the late Mancur Olsen said, a 'prince' is merely a bandit who doesn't move. Nothing more, nothing less. Force monopoly, "The State", "The Government", whatever you want to call it, is just as much a "peculiar institution" now as slavery used to be, and some day it will be considered just as archaic -- and as despicable -- as slavery is today. Just as in the middle ages humanity had to live in *spite* of The Church until it was finally killed by science, humanity, "society", or whatever you want to call people in general, lives in *spite* of The State, and I positively yearn for the day when The State is finally killed by finance, free markets and free (as in liberty, not as in beer :-)), strong, communication networks. Notice I didn't say "Economics", because, as best I can figure, "Economics" is merely finance by and for The State, in the same way that "Theology" was merely philosophy (and imaginary zoology, I suppose :-)) by and for The Church. Finance is no more the 'handmaiden' of economics than philosophy is the 'handmaiden' of theology. Cheers, RAH Who's reading his dog-eared, and apparently loaned, :-), copy of Hayek's 'Denationalization of Money' these days, between filling up boxes and shoving them out the door. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP Desktop 9.0.6 (Build 6060) iQA/AwUBRyoZfsPxH8jf3ohaEQLSXwCguJPG0tTR/tiW4uviCg5hStVbV/8AoNN8 6kjHZ2gtbzUfLPzmIa7eeaS/ =fND9 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'