From: wcs@anchor.ho.att.com (bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com +1-510-484-6204)
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 14:44:44 PDT
To: CCGARY@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu
Subject: Re:  Government and Repression
Message-ID: <9408312142.AA00718@anchor.ho.att.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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We're getting fairly far off topic here..... if we're going to talk
about anarchy, some spontaneous order would be useful :-)

>    I disagree: In the U. S. we have real repression. Current real total
> taxation is approx. 45%. I believe the serfs of Europe only paid a
> small amount above 1/12 of their production to their lords. That's a
> little in excess of 8.3% We revolted against English rule for taxation
> that was tiny compared to current burden.

Fairly typical taxation during English serfdom was two days labor per week
for the landlord.  40% of an average US worker's work week is also two days,
though serfs probably worked 6-7 days most weeks, less in winter.
Serfs were generally not allowed to leave, while Americans are.
Serfs could be drafted when there were wars, so can Americans.
Control by the lords came partly from conquest, and partly
(especially in France) from imposition of fealty in return for 
protection from invaders.

Some of the somewhat vaguely cypherpunk-related issues are:
- Serfdom and the social structures around it had troubles
  dealing with the emergence of merchant classes; non-government-
  controlled trade in an information economy may be similarly disruptive.
  (Serfdom was also seriously disrupted by the labor shortages
  following the Black Death, which gave lots more power and
  mobility to the remaining laborers.)

- Health care insurance is becoming increasingly used as a technique
  for keeping track of all citizens, especially kids who are
  otherwise hard to trace - not only has Clinton proposed a health 
  care smart card and a not-an-immigrant permission-to-work card,
  the administration's health/pension regulation bureaucrats have
  been demanding SS numbers on dependents' insurance claims.
  One of the big reasons is to keep people from going into the
  underground economy, but another is presumably the draft -
  current draft reservation is massively evaded, though
  that becomes much more difficult if you have databases of kids.

		Bill