Re: Net Regulation

B >Let me illustrate by taking myself as an example. I'm reasonably
B >well connected networkwise and knowledgeable. I could decide to
B >become one of these Permanent Tourists. But where would I go?
B >
B >What will be my concerns? Obviously, money will be one of them.
B >But so also will be climate, people, activities I might not be
B >willing to do without, and on and on. Furthermore, other
B >governments are, almost without exception, more repressive than
B >the one I have.

The rest of the world has as wide (or wider) a range of climates as the 
US.  The people you will be interacting with are the same people as you do 
now on the nets.  I know some people have problems with expatting (to
coining a term) themselves because of homesickness.  Harry Browne couldn't
adjust to Switzerland and so moved to Walnut Creek, CA.  Not everyone is
like that though.  And the nets means that you can take your surroundings 
with you.  Particularly once we get a VR interface.  Besides, the nets 
mean that you will be able to *virtually* expat yourself and remain
physically in the US if you like while working "overseas."

B >than I am now. So I think that most Permanent Tourists would
B >likely stay right where they are, more or less. Certainly they'd
B >stay in the developed world, where most governments are willing to
B >cooperate to some extent in the attempt to collect revenues.

Few governments tax the overseas earnings of their own expats.  Any Brit 
who expats himself physically and works via the nets would have *no* UK 
tax liability to be busted for.  If this Brit was physically remaining 
temporarily in different countries as a Permanent Tourist (even the US) 
and working on the nets, he would have *no* income tax liability.  Just as 
if I spend 6 months in France "on vacation" while I write my latest novel 
and negotiate the screen rights to my previous novels over the phone, I 
may have "earned" $2 million in France but would have *no* French tax 
liability as well as no right to work in France.  That sort of activity is 
not considered "work in France."  The nets mean that more and more people 
(musicians, surgeons, lawyers etc.) will be able to work as writers have 
always done -- from anywhere, to anywhere.  No tax consequences.  

B >It is a sad fact that governments collectively possess the means
B >to physically regulate all of the desirable real-estate and most
B >are more willing than ours to use physical force to pursue their
B >ends. So Permanent Tourist or not, one can't really escape them.

Governments are more likely to (as indeed they have already done) offer 
PTs special treatment to encourage them to hang their hat for a temporary 
basis.  This is sort of a reverse auction in which governments offer lower 
and lower taxes to snag the PTs who can go anywhere.  For example, you 
can't legally have a secret securities account or buy treasury bonds 
anonymously in the US but foreigners can.  A bank can acquire and hold 
T-Bonds for anonymous foreigners as long as it swears they are not 
Americans.  The Feds did this because they *need* anonymous foreign buyers 
for their debt instruments.  Why don't the Feds nuke any banks that try 
this.  They have the bomb after all?  Why, instead, do they explicitly 
allow this loophole by regulation?  They need the money.

B >Sooner or later, of course, this won't matter but, as I've said,
B >at least for the short term, it _does_.

There are already hundreds of thousands of American PTs living overseas.  
That was done under *old* technology.  61% of expat Americans don't file 
federal income tax forms even though they are required to do so whether or 
not they fall under the $70K exemption for overseas earned income.

B >Not this year or even the next. But what happens when the
B >printing-press equivalents cease to stave off bankruptcy?

The Government of the USSR went out of business.

B >Lots. Because people never do seem to learn the lessons of
B >history, sigh. Not, mind you, that I think they'd "win" for long.
B >They, too, prefer to ignore history. But while they're attempting
B >to prevent the working of the laws of nature, a lot of people
B >will suffer. *More* will suffer if we don't pay attention to this
B >reality.

I try and pay attention.  I just think that some over-romanticize the 
state by investing it with magic powers that it doesn't have.  Depending 
on your exact place of residence, you are more likely to be mugged by 
private parties than by the state.  

The technology doesn't strengthen the state, it weakens it.

Duncan Frissell    
--- WinQwk 2.0b#1165

There are several severe limitations to how big of a movement this
could really be: 

1) Let's say, just for instance, that all computer programmers in Europe
   and the US switch places, and become Permanent Tourists. Do you think
   that anyone would notice? Do you think there might be some sort of 
   action taken at the national government level? Would it be effective?

2) Even in this highly select hypothetical group, I would say that the
   vast majority still don't even grasp or have access to the basic
   technology for using even the most simple net tools. Even if we
   eliminated all of the COBOL programmers, we'd still be looking at a 
   tough row to hoe. 

3) One of the persistent problems in solving unemployment problems in
   both the US and Europe is that folks JUST WON'T MOVE. This is more
   true in Europe than the US, but we can look at numerous examples where
   the need for particular skills (or any skills at all) will evaporate
   in one part of the country while there are shortages elsewhere. Some
   people will have sufficient gumption to load up the U-Haul and beat
   it, but most will hang around, going on welfare and engaging in 
   cargo-cult-like behavior waiting for jobs to appear from the sky.

   Most Americans are hidebound, closed-minded people who couldn't even
   find the US on an unlabelled map, much less MOVE to another COUNTRY.

4) The inability of most of our fellow citizens to process text and
   numbers is staggering; it's not clear by any means that they're 
   ready for jobs in their same CITY where they live, if it involves
   any significant reading or writing skills. How are these people going
   to fare in your scenario? Remeber, they're still citizens of an
   alleged democracy and thus have their collective finger on one of the
   largest coercive apparati in the world.

5) If folks don't move, but try to get cute with where their income
   is coming from, they will almost certainly be persecuted by the IRS,
   independent of current law, if their numbers become significant. This
   is probably true even if foreign nationals are involved, especially
   if they pose any significant load on government services. Imagine
   the resentment of, say, a local rancher, tied to physical and taxable
   goods: "Awww, he's onenna them computer-head tax evaders, think he's
   so smart. I'm a-gonna point out him out to the tax boys, and they'll 
   fix him but good."

It wouldn't take too many "examples" to force whatever tax regime the IRS
felt was necessary. The majority of taxpayers in this country are *not*
going to be to be PTs for a long, long time, or are employed in 
professions where it simply won't work (teaching, day-care, nursing, 
car repair, food service, plumbing, construction, agricultural labor,
physical plant maintenance, transportation and delivery, product assembly,
live entertainment, etc., and, of course, the government itself). 

I think that individuals like you, and the others on this list, may 
slowly leak out of the US economy over the next ten years, but it will
probably pass largely unnoticed; if it gains enough momentum, someone 
*will* notice and take steps to make it sufficiently chancy that most
folks will cough up some or all of the required taxes. 

The vast majority of folks, even the high-tech industry, are unwilling
to do anything that would take them out of their cozy home towns or 
suburban enclaves, force them to ship the enormous quantities of material 
crud that they've acquired across one ocean or another, or, god forbid, 
run afoul of the IRS. 


-- 
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Douglas Barnes            cman@illuminati.io.com            /  \ 
Chief Wizard         (512) 448-8950 (d), 447-7866 (v)      / () \
Illuminati Online          metaverse.io.com 7777          /______\