Re: [IWAR] POL White House data deletion

From: Mark Hedges (hedgesat_private)
Date: Fri Apr 10 1998 - 17:32:50 PDT

  • Next message: Mark Hedges: "[IWAR] US CRYPTO Everyone vs. Reno and Freeh"

    If the white house doesn't care about the laws... if the FBI wiretaps
    regularly without a court order... if the CIA and NSA spy on american
    citizens, violating their laws... why should anyone else care either?
    Doesn't that give the tax collecter the image of a criminal?
    
    I still pay my taxes, dutifully, and without any knowledge of who gets the
    money, but I feel like a schmuck because I've met a dozen people in the
    last year who say they just plain don't file, and the IRS never bothers
    them.
    
    I think if Snowcrash turns out... Scientologists own battleships, Central
    Intelligence Corporation, and USG Inc... I might keep paying taxes just for
    kicks.
    
    An interesting theme in taxes -- deductions imply it's the government's
    right to decide what to take and what we can keep. It is not; what it is is
    doubtless incalculable, but, at the least, rationality should play a part.
    Taxes also make the case that few resources exist for domestic and cultural
    necessities like good education, by entitling 'special classes' to higher
    standards. Though the blind, as a class, deserve a specialized, high
    standard education, plenty more could get one, too, with even a fraction of
    the money they spend on supercomputers and guns.
    
    Just my two bits... wait, it's almost 15 April (tax day), make that one bit.
    
    -hedges-
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 13:07:22 PDT