[p2p-research] Request: Peer to Peer and Human Evolution

[Kevin Carson]

On 2/19/10, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm still of two minds regarding internet taxation, but first hand, I don't
> see why internet companies should be excempted from contributing to the
> public good.

As an anarchist, I can't say I'm in favor of taxation of any kind.
But so long as a state exists that's funded by coercive taxation, the
exemption of any favored sector of the economy has exactly the same
practical effect as if the state started with a base taxation rate of
zero and then imposed a punitive tax only on those firms not engaged
in favored forms of activity.

OTOH, one of the benefits of the emerging network society is its
opacity to the state, and its ability to function outside the
regulatory framework that creates artificial scarcity.  I see a
darknet economy of networked, encrypted currency transactions, in
which patents and copyrights are ignored, and with its own
certification and authenticating mechanisms, as the basis for the
post-state society.


> Generally speaking, what makes sense to me is a radical overhaul of the tax
> philosophy away from taxing productive activities, especially labour, and
> replace it with taxing financial transacitons, especially the speculative
> ones (tobin tax etc..)

So long as a tax-funded state exists, I think the geolibertarians are
right on the mark:  by far the least harmful forms of taxation are
those that fall either on negative externalities or economic rents
(land value taxation, severance fees for minerals, carbon taxes,
etc.).

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
The Homebrew Industrial Revolution:  A Low-Overhead Manifesto
http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html