From: cman@IO.COM (Douglas Barnes)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 15:07:47 PDT
To: frissell@panix.com (Duncan Frissell)
Subject: Re: Net Regulation
In-Reply-To: <199310261432.AA28584@panix.com>
Message-ID: <9310262201.AA17193@illuminati.IO.COM>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Basically, Duncan, I agree with you as to the *desirability* of the
outcome you describe, I'm just not as sure of its feasability.

Re: Cheating in place

Yes, folks cheat on their taxes, especially self-employed ones. But
this is widely resented, and brings cries from the vast majority to
sock it to those who fail to comply. Look at the blase acceptance
by the populace of the draconian measures taken in the War on Drugs.
Will similar measures be condoned in the War on Electronic Tax Cheats?

We've seen how little is required for a chilling effect to take place
vis-a-vis PGP, and how it's undercut its acceptance as a standard; if
the FIDO-net folks can't be persuaded to take PGP messages, how are
you going to persuade a substantial fraction of information workers to
face much more serious criminal penalties? You're much more likely to
end up with a sub-critical mass of folks who are periodically victimized
by no-knock raids, property confiscation, etc.

Re: Moving to cheat

Certainly at present information entrepreneurs can slip through the 
tax laws as they apply to the notion of residence in a foreign country. 
It's fun, it's legal, and I've done it; I don't see it ever becoming a 
big trend for all but one or two percent of the population. Maybe big
enough to get some governments to collude on grabbing folks and making 
them cough up taxes, maybe not.

Will information technology bring down the government? I'd like to think 
so, but I don't see it happening in the next 10-20 years. I'm actually more
concerned that, misused, it could re-empower the government to stick its 
nose in places where it doesn't belong.

(Note: I use the word 'cheat' despite the fact that I take an extremely
dim view of most government activites and taxes, simply because that's
how it's going to be reported in the media if it ever becomes significant.
It's how the hypothetical 'man on the street' who, say, fixes appliances
for a living and has only the vaguest notion of your underlying philosophy,
will view your activities.)

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