Lorrey, the government doesn't give a goddamn about what you think is
legal. What determines whether barter will be taxed is whether *they*
think it's legal, because they have fighter jets and you don't. Not
whether they "should" think barter is taxable, but whether some
bureaucrat actually *does* think that barter is taxable. Any argument
you offer that isn't going to occur to that bureaucrat is irrelevant, at
least to me, because my toolbox for saving the world consists of
technologies that can have a major impact in the next ten years. If the
government gets in my way, it doesn't matter how unfair it is; the
technology will not be adopted by major corporations or most private
individuals, and except in very unusual cases that amounts to scratching
the technology off the list.
Life isn't fair. The government doesn't care. Neither do I. Deal with it.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/beyond.html
Member, Extropy Institute
Senior Associate, Foresight Institute
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