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by bserge 1715 days ago
My first thought is you can share your thoughts with the armed people at your door if you decide to push your voluntary taxation idea.

They'll probably listen to you as they're giving you a free ride to your new home.

Point is, it's not a balancing weight when the state has the actual power.

Broader point: instead of focusing on changing and improving the actual social/political system, people build fantasy escape solutions through technology.

But it's all based on the assumption that the current liberal, democratic society is an immutable right for everyone. It's not.
1 comments
nolantait 1715 days ago
It is a balancing weight because the states military power depends on a landed citizenry that is easily taxed. If you remove the easily taxed part you also remove the military power part. Not advocating a lawless return to strong man tribalism. But I don't follow the idea that changing the abilities of a government to easily enforce taxation means they will remain effective at enforcing through more expensive means.
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zozbot234 1715 days ago
Cryptocurrencies do not exactly make it harder to enforce taxes on a landed citizenry. The government is what enforces land property in the first place, and if you're late on your taxes they'll just put a tax lien on your land and ultimately stop enforcing your property rights on it.
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nolantait 1715 days ago
Assuming you can't also choose to move yourself and your assets to another country offering better terms. That's how the dynamics are changing. Peter Thiel and New Zealand are a small picture of the future to come. Countries will compete. How much of wealth is really tied up in land? If I can zap my wealth from one side of the world to another without anyone being able to stop me is it really easier to stop capital flight?
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zozbot234 1715 days ago
> Assuming you can't also choose to move yourself and your assets to another country offering better terms.

Better terms are always very appealing, but the "terms" are about governance as a whole, not just paying taxes. That's what attracts assets from outside. Taxes are just a predictable cost of doing business, but bad governance can easily be a showstopper.

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