From: Michael Loomis <ml3e+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 02:13:28 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: CryptoAnarchy: What's wrong with this picture?
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.93.960502012945.614A-100000@polaris.mindport.net>
Message-ID: <ElWSW6y00iWWM1ZWIa@andrew.cmu.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 2-May-96 Re: CryptoAnarchy: What's
w.. by Black Unicorn@schloss.li 
> I must assume either
> 
> 1) He is not intimately familiar with the system of U.S. taxation (even if
> he is pro-high-tax, calling the current system 'just about right' is
> folly).

No tax system will ever been perfect, but  income taxation is a good
system of taxation.  Income taxation inevitably requires some accounting
costs, but these costs should be going down with advances in computing
technology and other technology.  The goal should be to minimize these
costs.  I would further suggest it is remarkably childish to think that
a political system will not cause some unfairness in the tax code,
because it is the nature of democracy to generate some unfairness.  As
long as the unfairness is kept within reasonable bounds as in the case
of the 1986 tax reform, I don't see that this unfairness as a killing
objection to income taxation.  Of course, unlike most of the readership
of this list, I believe that democracy is a good thing.

The one concession that I will make is the possibility that crypto
technologies could make income taxation an adventure in unfairness and
ultimately futility.  While, I prefer income taxation, VATs or sales
taxes are an acceptable subsitute and one can certainly run a reasonable
sized government on them.  Outside of crypto-cyber-carrots, I have
strong doubts that crypto of any form or sophistication will be able to
circumvent consumption taxation.  Consumption taxation would, of course,
include a tax on the amount of information coming into your computer.  I
don't think that the government will have any problem determining the
quantity of the information & since it will be encrypted anyway, I don't
see the privacy worries.

Michael Loomis
"La haine de l'autorite' est le fle'au de nos jours."  Joseph de Maistre