[wplug] Taxes

[Bryon Gill]

On Thu, 1 May 2008, terry mcintyre wrote:

> No one who has stood in line at the DMV or the USPS
> can claim that the government is a marvel of
> efficiency - especially when you consider how fast
the
> price of a postage stamp has risen, and how the
speed
> of delivery and quality of service has declined.
> 

I updated my registration online this year and it was
very simple.  The USPS hasn't been a government agency
since Nixon privatized it.  I don't think you're
arguing against taxation so much as for responsive
representation.

In any case, as another poster pointed out, this whole
discussion is silly- the Internet Archive is a private
organization.  It's market/charity, just what all the
Conservative/Libertarians say they want

Some government programs are very effective for their
purpose and cost (think we should eliminate WIC for
instance?), but there's less political hay to be made
over attacking baby food.  You usually hear about the
outlying cases.

The best uses of government funding, in my opinion,
are in the creation of infrastructure.  Roads,
bridges, etc.  Large capital investments that are too
big for any one corporate entity to accomplish, and
that wouldn't benefit anyone else in any case unless
they were made for the benefit of the public rather
than a single corporation.  These are usually
investments that pay for themselves in tax revenue by
stimulating commerce.  Think giving internet access to
people who don't already have it might be such an
investment?  Try to think a little beyond "they're
poor they can't buy anything" please.  I'm not saying
the answer is yes, but it's at least debatable.




=====
What is wrong is that we have invented the technology to eliminate scarcity, but we are deliberately throwing it away
to benefit those who profit from scarcity. 
            -John Gilmore 
             http://cryptome.org/jg-wwwcp.htm