> ----------
> From: Darin Sunley[SMTP:umsunley@cc.umanitoba.ca]
> Reply To: extropians@extropy.com
> Sent: Tuesday, 8 June 1999 14:28
> To: extropians@extropy.com
> Subject: Re: Flat Tax.
>
> This is probably going to sound like a dirty question, but would the
> government
> have enough money to function based only on a sales tax? I'm no fan of
> government
> expansion, but there ARE certain essential services that governments
> currently
> provide.
>
> Of course, one likely response is that the government can and should
> function on
> dramatically less money, providing correspondingly less "essential"
> services.
>
Or the government could subsidize advertising, with the end result that more
money is spent, and more tax is collected.
> Even if everyone were to decide tomorrow to completely privatize every
> single
> government department, the government would have to keep functioning
> during the
> transition period.
>
> It's not just a matter of deciding what the ideal system would be. We also
> need a
> plan for the orderly transition/decentralization of power. Given the
> current
> American system of government, how WOULD you gradually eliminate/down
> size/decentralize the government without massive drops in service levels,
> or
> massive unemployment. (Sad fact: when a given agency employs a significant
> portion of the population, their elimination makes a significant change to
> the
> unemployment figures).
>
Aren't those great big monuments in Washington DC the result of a government
spending program which was conceived primarily for the purpose of
manipulating the economy?
> Big government can be likened to a drug addiction. Going off it cold
> turkey can
> have dramatic negative health effects for the system as a whole, as bad or
> worse
> as the effects of remaining addicted. Given that simply firing all
> government
> officials one day would cause a brief period of anarchy followed by some
> form of
> dictatorship almost certainly worse then the current system, how do we
> escape it?
>
Don't worry, apparently the state's just going to wither away, although I
can't get my hands on a schedule, they said next month maybe, or next year.
I hope it doesn't wither so much that they can't get the schedule out.
> Darin Sunley
> [Canadian, and thus living in a system even MORE addicted to large central
> government, but asking questions referring to the U.S. as they're likely
> to be
> more interesting :)]
> rsunley@escape.ca
>
Emlyn
Australian, yeah big government (could be a bit bigger in my opinion),
talking about the US for no particular reason that I can see. I've done
better than this before, haven't I? Oh well.