From: Steve Schear <schear@lvcm.com>
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 02:39:35 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: The Usual Suspects (National sales tax)
In-Reply-To: <199805030855.KAA18049@basement.replay.com>
Message-ID: <v03102803b17244abad8a@[24.234.31.56]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



>From my perspective, one of the most important fallouts from a replacement
of the graduated tax with a national sales tax is the removal of much of
the current rationale for FinCEN and citizen identification (i.e., SSN).
Certainly, it should no longer be required for establishing a non-credit
financial institution account, purchasing a money order/cashier's check or
wiring money.  In fact, you shouldn't need SSN for employment, except that
unless you supplied some number (even if psueduanon) you'd forego accruing
benefits.  The use of SSN for the ID runs the gammut in local, state and
federal programs, but is most often justified for purposes of taxation.

Now, I'm not naive enough to believe that any of these gov't agencies or
private corps are going to willing give up citizen unit IDs, but it will be
interesting to see their new rationales for the continued use of SSN (or
its replacement) for ID.

--Steve

--Steve

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