From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Mon, 22 Aug 94 23:11:12 PDT
To: solman@MIT.EDU (Jason W Solinsky)
Subject: Re: Voluntary Governments?
In-Reply-To: <9408230446.AA16187@ua.MIT.EDU>
Message-ID: <199408230610.XAA15960@netcom3.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Jason Solinsky wrote:

> Lets ignore the dictionary, which says you are wrong, and return to the
> issue. Can a government (in cyberspace or otherwise) wield the authority
> to tax and regulate behavior without guns?
> 
> > If you inspect the matter carefully, without the threat of force there
> > could be no government.  Otherwise, how would they collect taxes and
> > tarriffs?
> 
> Easily. They could deny you access to services of greater value than the
> tax being imposed. MIT weilds this power quite successfully. This thread

Jason is confusing markets and governments.

A movie theater that sells tickets is not "taxing" its patrons--it is
selling access. A university that charges tuition is not "taxing" its
customers.

(I will grant, and always have, that various businesses and
universities and whatnot have various links to government:
franchises, special enabling regulations, subsidies, etc. These
complicate the issue, and make for what economists used to call
"mixed" markets. Libertarians and others decry these mix-ins. But I
don't take this to be the point Jason was making.)


To call all negotiated prices "taxes" is, bluntly,
absurd. It also cheapens the language by throwing away the essential
distinction between market prices and taxes.

In any case, something is a "market price" if one can walk away from
the transaction. I know of almost nothing the U.S. government calls a
"tax" that taxpayers are free to walk away from, to not pay (and thus
not receive the service).

If Jason is arguing that goods and services will be bought and paid
for in cyberspace, who could disagree with this? They're just not
taxes. 


--Tim May


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