At 11:23 +0200 7/17/00, Tom Vogt wrote:
>> But it's Wrong, and Evil, and over time inevitably leads to a government
>> that encompasses more and more of daily life, and regulates more and more,
>> and recognizes the rights of individuals less and less. The laws pile up
>> higher and higher, and each year at an increasing rate. And everyone,
>> especially cypherpunks, should fight it tooth and nail.
>
>while I agree completely that we don't really need a metric ton of
>lawbooks to be happy (or free, or whatever), I don't see that this
>follows from what I'm saying.
>
>let's say we just do away with corporations. we declare them as
>nonexistent, as far as the law is concerned, and throw away 300 kg of
>tax-, corporate-, business- and other related laws. how exactly does
>this lead to an overregulatory government?
No, that leads to an economic collapse <G>. More seriously, the
problem with your argument is the assumption that government can
simply wipe the slate of corporations. Corporations are a formal
system of distributed ownership of a business. They were not
miraculously brought into being by the magic wand of government
power. They were created out of a need for growing businesses to
aquire more capital to continue there growth. At the same time
individuals of relatively modest income wished to invest in business
opportunities they would otherwise have been kept out of. At the
same time more formal control systems evolved to deal with the
increasing complexities of distributed ownership. The rights
extended to corporations by virtue of the private have since been
formalized and clarified by a combination of legislation and judicial
rulings.
--
Kevin "The Cubbie" Elliott
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ICQ#23758827
_______________________________________________________________________________
"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both
instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly
unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware
of change in the air--however slight--lest we become unwitting
victims of the darkness."
-- Justice William O. Douglas
