RE: Why does the state still stand:

[Steve Reid <root@edmweb.com>]

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> What if someone, hired on one occasion but fired at another, decides in
> anger to "turn coat" and report everyone to the IRS (or other fine
> government agency)? 

They can't, if the company doesn't use True Names.

> What if a company does not pay as expected - other than adopting
> Assassination Politics, what method could an employee use towards getting
> their expected remuneration for work done? 

This is a serious problem... An employee could, of course, state his/her
case to Usenet and other places and bring down the reputation of the
company. Problem is, would people believe him/her? And if people would
believe, what's to stop someone from deciding to "turn coat" like you said
above, except instead of reporting to the IRS, they spread lies to the
world? Assasination Politics won't work if you can't locate the physical
person, but reputation assassination would probably be a fairly simple
matter. 

Another problem with reputations is that people are stuck until they get a
good one. A bad rep can always start over. In fact, a person/company can
look perfectly nice, but use a different identity for dirty work.
Naturally, you'd only trust dealings that involve a "nice" identity.
Problem is, young people who are just starting out have a no-reputation
identity, and would be treated the same as the no-reputation identities
that are used for screwing people over. 

Reputations could be very hard to create, and very easy to destroy.
Well-known good reputations would be powerful and fairly hard to destroy,
so it's possible that the big reputations might try to crush little
reputations in an effort to gain some sort of reputation monopoly. Maybe. 

> Wouldn't everyone need to have two jobs (or source of regularly accepted
> cash), in order to be able to pay for services where suppliers do not
> accept virtual cash transactions? (TCM has mentioned before about the need
> to pay for some things in tiny quantities - like quarters for a phone
> call, etc.)

This is not a problem. I believe some of the ecash banks are already
exchanging ecash for physical cash. It's a needed service, so there will
always be people willing to do it. 


I do not advocate tax evasion or any other illegal activity. I'm just
looking through a hazy crytal ball to see one possible future. 


=====================================================================
| Steve Reid - SysAdmin & Pres, EDM Web (http://www.edmweb.com/)    |
| Email: steve@edmweb.com   Home Page: http://www.edmweb.com/steve/ |
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|          -- Disclaimer: JMHO, YMMV, TANSTAAFL, IANAL. --          |
===================================================================:)

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