hi Hartmut and Martin, i have just found this draft email, and i'm sending it to you two directly in the hope that you will find these thoughts useful/interesting, but i don't want to further annoy the mailing list with this topic.
> Undermining the governments ability to raise tax also means undermining > the ability to build schools, kindergartens, public libraries, public > transport, streets, etc. Who is going to pay and provide all of this, If > there is no democratically controlled() government? there's plenty of past examples of financing these things without the government collecting the necessary funds. also, these things are only a tiny fraction of the government's budget. if you want to dig deeper, then a book titled 'The Machinery of Freedom' discusses the various alternative forms of financing in more detail (http://daviddfriedman.com/#mybooks). > You might argument that this will then be paid be wealthy people - but the vast majority of the taxes are not taken from the wealthy, but from the masses. the well-connected easily pays for the marginal cost of the tax consultants, lawyers, judges, offshore entities, and whatnot... and ultimately buy/corrupt the entire political system. and especially so for inflation, which is straight out a tax that siphons the purchasing power from people who hold cash equivalents (i.e. the poor), to the people who own assets (i.e. the wealthy)... who are also closer to the source of new money, and therefore spend it first on the market, when it has not yet elevated the prices. see the Cantillon effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cantillon#Monetary_theory which here reminds me of: “In a just society, it is shameful to be poor. In a corrupt society, it is shameful to be rich.” — Confucius (551–479 BC), 'The Analects', Chapter VIII, paraphrased this is the original: “When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are things to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honor are things to be ashamed of.” % — Confucius (551–479 BC), 'The Analects', Chapter VIII (邦有道貧且賤焉恥也，邦無道富且貴焉恥也。) -- • attila lendvai • PGP: 963F 5D5F 45C7 DFCD 0A39 -- “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” — Anaïs Nin (1903–1977)
