Re: Assassination Politics(tm) was V-chips, CC, and Motorcycle Helmets

["E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>]

From:	IN%"jimbell@pacifier.com"  "jim bell" 16-FEB-1996 03:25:12.58
>At 02:18 PM 2/15/96 -0800, Bill Frantz wrote:

>BTW, for the record, just a couple of days ago Clinton probably passed 
>within a mile of my house, "Slant range", in a helicopter, with a day's 
>warning.  (The term, "slant range", is a "term of art," for those not in the 
>know.)

	Yes; one could also take out a great deal of Washington DC via toxic
gas. (If it weren't flammable, hydrogen cyanide would work nicely; just mix
potassium cyanide and hydrochloric acid). Unfortunately, this would also kill
a lot of innocent people (including, under my system of ethics at least, some
governmental types. Look at Governor John P. Altgeld if you don't believe that
any can exist; he pardoned the Haymarket riot scapegoats, and ruined his
political career by doing so).

>Now, imagine you were a government employee in this line of work, and a 
>fellow employee was bumped off due to a well-publicized incident.  Next time 
>you're asked to engage in a Waco-like operation, what do you think you'll 
>say to  your manager?   "Is this trip necessary?"

>This is called, "deterrence."

	You have a point. Of course, this gets back to the ever-present debate
over whether the death penalty causes deterrence or not. I suspect it doesn't
for most gang members; whether the actual (as opposed to rhetorical) psychology
of governmental employees would predict the same is an interesting question.
 
>Now, I think statistics show that each year, about 800 billion dollars in  
>individual income taxes are collected.  If we assume that the equivalent of 
>only 1% of that  value  was donated to solve the "IRS problem," that's 8 
>BILLION dollars, which at $10,000 per person would buy 800,000 deaths.  
>THat's 7 times the current employment of the IRS.

>You tell me:  What would the average person pay THIS YEAR to avoid paying, 
>say, a $100,000 tax bill NEXT YEAR?  (Hint:  How much do rich people pay 
>their accountants, TODAY, to avoid taxes?)

	You've got a "tragedy of the commons" problem. Everyone would assume
that everyone else would do it. (Admittedly, that libertarians have among the
highest charitable donation rates of any group may argue otherwise). Now,
targeting whoever audited you is a quite likely possibility.

>Another Hint:  Consider Bill Gates.  His wealth is variously estimated at 
>over 10 BILLION dollars, probably almost all of which is in long-term 
>capital gains (Microsoft stock), for which he will have to pay somewhere 
>around 30% in Federal income taxes if he should choose to cash out.  He 
>would be 1.5 Billion dollars ahead if he donated $1.5 billion dollars to an 
>organization which would eliminate his  requirement to pay the total 3 
>billion dollar tax bill to the IRS.  That alone is the equivalent of about 
>$14,000 for each IRS employee.

	You have an interesting point here.
	-Allen