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Re: Hettinga's e$yllogism
On Sat, 28 Jun 1997, Kent Crispin wrote:
> But so what? Right now the government has intimate knowledge of your
> finances through tax records and other sources, and has the power to
> put liens on your property and your cash for all kinds of reasons.
> And indeed, all too frequently it gets out of control. But the
> bottom line is that business in the US continues to function. It
> would continue to function with key escrow, as well.
They can easily put a lein on MY property, but (except for some abuses
which are the subject of lawsuits), they can't put a lein on something
that has been sold and resold that is now someone else's. With GAK$, they
can cancel every $20 e-bill I have ever spent, those I currently own, and
those I have transferred to others in exchange.
> Assuming certain models of key escrow, yes. Under other models, no.
> But imagine the worst case -- GAK creates a huge unwieldy expensive
> computerized infrastructure and associated bureacracy. What
> happens? Businesses find other ways to protect their data and
> transactions, huge economic inefficiencies develop, and the whole
> thing collapses and goes away.
>
> It's amazing how little faith libertarians have in the market system,
> isn't it? :-)
Actually I expect exactly what you describe to happen. In various other
posts and venues, I have said in some form that "The government won't be
overthrown in a revolution, it will be obsoleted by technology".
But waiting for the market to take effect may not be short or pleasant.
Look how long it took for the Soviet empire to collapse.