X-Message-Number: 21836 From: "John de Rivaz" <> Subject: debate on taxation/welfare Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 12:25:41 +0100 I have read the various ideas with some interest and also some sadness -- everyone seems so angry with each other, and yet, as far as I know, none of the writers has any control over what is going on -- neither do I. A lot of the debate seems to be over definitions -- should "theft" be used only as defined in a court of law (in which case taxation is not theft) or as in common parlance. (Even if it is, taxation is more like extortion than theft.) Then there was someone's comment about using tax lawyers to minimise the tax penalties on one's activity as "taking money". Surely the motive is "not losing it" ( you lose it to the lawyers instead, though). In another debate elsewhere a tax enthusiast suggested that capital due to be taken in taxation as a penalty on stock exchange transactions "does not belong to the taxpayer" because it is a tax liability. If this is the case, why does he have to sign the check then? People who are born in a jurisdiction they don't like can "vote against it" by emigrating. By not emigrating they have indicated that they accept the jurisdiction. Many systems exist, have existed, or have been proposed to manage civilisation. If there was a superior one, if it were implemented it would rise to the top and would be emulated. That isn't to say that all those presently existing are the best, but that no better one that is also practical has yet been devised. This is relevant to cryonics on the basis that one of the major risk factors in the "drake equation" as applied to any given individual's cryopreservation includes his country's ability to degrade his control over his assets. There is a limit to the number of mailing lists and web forums that any one individual can read. CryoNet is the oldest and is likely to be read by more cryonicists than any other. -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy, Nomad .. and more Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=21836