An interesting thought experiment from a recent conference. This is keyed
to the US but I have noticed that other countries are not shy about
demanding their cut of your work.

(If you are wondering why I can't spell, it is because I am practicing for
the day when the Idiotic Act - sorry, I mean the Patreeotic Act 'bots
start scanning every packet for any sign of terrrorist thoughts like those
of Paine, Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin.)

A couple of decades ago, during the stagflation period, swap enterprises
sprung up to match people who wanted to trade services. Well, the IReS
wasn't having any of that crap, and quickly made it known that you WOULD
pay taexes on money that you would have made if you had made any.

On to the experiment.
Let's assume that Linux sweeps the world - M$ is toast and Windows CDs are
sold for clay pigeons in countries where AKfortyseven users need practice.

So... I give you an OS, for free, that used to cost $150US. You give me
an Office suite that would have been $300. Both of us get a freebie CAD
program from someone else - used to be worth thousands.

Suddenly it dawns on the powers that be (three letters starting with I and
ending with S, just for one) that they used to get a large slice of of the
sales and income from 250 billion (just to throw out a number I read
somewhere) worth of software (mostly bloatware, of course) and now they
get nothing! The people are getting much more value for much less and are
cheating the pols out of their fair cut. Ain't no way to let this go on!!

Meetings through the long nights. Out comes the decree of.....what?

Muncher

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 11:39:41 -0600, Muncher wrote:

Nothing. It's all legal. The IRS could try, of course.

Muncher blubbered effusively on Tue, 25 Nov 2003 at 17:39 GMT:

This would be more likely an area of interest in state capitols than on
Capitol Hill (unless the Republicrats can figure out a way to hide it
as taxing somebody other than those paying it). In DC I don't think
they'd worry about it much. It'snot like commerce would diminish by
that ammont. Rather, it would increase in other areas that are already
taxable.

States, OTOH, would jump on it in a heartbeat (anybody remember
California trying to tax Hughes or somebody for flying a satellite that
was launched from their land? Not just for the expeditures on it, but
all income derived from it after launch.). Until that bunch of easels
learns to cut back when times are tough and/or save during the good
times for when times aren't so good, they'll keep looking for every
possible way to increase taxes on everything dead or alive.

Right now they want to tax the internet.

In the 80s, DC cut taxes. The states followed by increasing taxes by a
lesser amount. You still thought you got a tax cut and didn't notice so
much when they increased it. The same is going on now, and I predict it
will be universally done over the next couple of years. The taxes don't
go down. They just transfer who you pay them to. When there's a real
need for an increase on the federal level, we notice. But the states
are so good at the shell game we rarely seem to catch what they're
doing when they do it.

Over the long haul taxes always, /ALWAYS/ increase in totality. At the
same time, governments expand, entitlements expand, and poor programs
get "overhauled"* instead of dropped.**

I suggest we need to stop tax withholding for 2 years (1 would do it,
but let's make the outrage stick). Make everybody actually write a
check for the amount of their taxes on/about April 15 for those
periods. Let them see what they actually pay out. Just twice, then we
can go back to the pyramid scheme we're accustomed to playing. We could
even have friendly IRS and state payment plans (with interest,
naturally) for those that didn't plan in advance. But let everybody see
exactly what they pay and have a chance to look at what they get for it
to see if it's really worth the cost.

It won't happen because the pols are allergic to tar and feathers.

* Renamed so they have another ten or more years of being lousy before
anybody takes another look at them and renames them again.

** "No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government
programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau
is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!"
-- Ronald Reagan

--
"This update limits certain functionality in Outlook to provide a
higher level of security; it was not created to address a security
vulnerability within Outlook." -Another innovative MS enhancement

Fearing a spontaneous XP reboot, Muncher mumbled this incantation:

Nothing. They already tax me and my ISP.

If I buy Linux at the store, the state already taxes that.

Of course, you may have a point anyway, as the big push today is for the
wealthy to get more money, for doing nothing.

--
No, I won't fix your Windows computer!

Muncher wrote:
Stop yabbering and pass me that doobie you're obviously smoking...