From: jf_avon@citenet.net
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 1997 00:03:00 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Real issue of crypto controls: security or taxation loss?
Message-ID: <199709131600.MAA22590@cti06.citenet.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Hi.

I've been lazily following the crypto-control issue through e$pam 
list.

Somebody posted a question asking how many peoples would eventually 
be victims of crypto-enhanced crime.

Then, TM came to say that this is irrelevant.  TM was right in the 
context of the post, but it led me to ask myself this 
(vague) question:

	What is the real issue here, what makes the govt so insistent about 
	wanting to ban crypto?  What is such a threat to them that it makes 
	them pass laws that are profoundly against the US constitution?  

	What causes their panic?

To this, all I can find of enough magnitude to put them in such state 
is that they just recently *truly* realized that crypto will, 
infinitely more than to threaten the security of the state,
threaten their very existence by putting them outside of the money 
loop.

To paraphrase somebody, "individuals recognize taxation as damage and 
routes their e$ around"

I think that *this* debate should be injected in the population and 
the *bogus* "national security" debate should be dismissed as, 
just that : bogus.  

*Everybody* not living on govt taxated money gets a sparkle in their 
eyes when I introduce them to crypto via the e-$ topic.  And all of 
the others gets pale...  ;-)

For most peoples, privacy in itself is worth something only if 
if they have some *value* they want to preserve.  Most of the 
time, this value concretizes itself as "money".  So if we talk to 
them in terms *they* understand, we run a much better chance to make 
them understand why spreading crypto is a tool we believe will 
greatly enhance human's life quality.

Any comments about why we should *not* put most emphasis on the 
financial aspect of crypto?

Ciao

jfa
-- 
Jean-Francois Avon, Pierrefonds(Montreal) QC Canada
  JFA Technologies, R&D physicists & engineers
  Instrumentation & control, LabView programming.
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