Hopefully the AIs will be intelligent enough to grasp that taxation is
actually theft (and immoral) under the auspices of benlovence and will
decide that voluntary methods of financing would be a moral solution. :)
i.e. One good plan Vie heard for voluntary financing is contract protection
fees. When you finance a car or house or whatever (included credit cards),
you participate in a contract with a person, corporation, etc... This
contract should be protected by law only if the people who sign it want that
protection. Obviously this would be a smart protection to have if your the
seller so you would make it a prerequisite for buying the product. The buyer
would have the choice of buying or not so for him, its a voluntary issue as
well. The government could charge 5% of the cost of the value of the
contract as an "enforcement fee". With all the credit card transactions
taking place daily, this could easily make the government a large sum of
money for their services. During times of war they could increase the
percentage or lower it during times of economic prosperity or in the case
where their running surpluses. The cool thing is that nothing in this plan
is forced on the people at the point of a gun. If you want to draw up a
contract to sell you car to a friend but not buy the governments protection,
your perfectly free to do so. Just don't go crying to them when your friend
decides not to pay. ;)
I know that was a bit off track, but it sounds like such a good idea, I had
to find a way to inject it in.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Hanson" <rhanson@gmu.edu>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2001 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: DiscoveryCh - AI
> Eugene Leitl wrote:
> >As people in presence of >H AIs, we're really, really small
> >beer. ...
> >The Powers are the AIs. Since I don't see a mechanism by which
> >we should be able to keep up with the super-joneses, and I do not
> >see any incentive on the part of AIs ...
> >the AIs are the sole players on the field. As soon as
> >they arrive, we become a part of the environment, to be
> >manipulated at will.
>
> I think you're missing the point. Some AIs can tax other AIs,
> just as some humans now tax other humans. The relative
> abilities of humans and AIs are irrelevant.
>
>
> Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
> Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
> MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
> 703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
>
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