I too would pay taxes. I think taxation is necessary one way or another, I only question the amount needed to be taxed.
I'd pay taxes too if they covered exactly what I wanted them to. But I doubt the current government could ever shrink that much.
The government is generally quite expert at recovering taxes they have decided you owe, and at changing the rules to ensure you can't sidestep the system simply by using something such as bitcoin (bitcoin is either a currency or "payment in kind" when it comes to receiving it as compensation for selling to others - although it's more difficult for the law to be enforced here, it's still the law that you have to pay taxes).
I realize bitcoin isn't 100% anonymous & you could catch people based on the physical items they own (houses, cars, boats), but seems like a lot of effort, especially if everyone starts doing it. And once more & more people stop paying taxes, the government won't have the money to pay for better collectors, prisons, or police.
In a completely free market with no regulation, what is to stop several large corporations with economies of scale colluding on price?
Any smaller companies couldn't compete fairly and therefore the price wouldn't be driven down.
Multiple things. A new competitor with a better price. A fall out in the collusion (prisoner's dilemma). If it's a scarce resource, an alternative. If there's no alternative, a high enough price will make it worth it to research/create an alternative.
FA by referring to a commodity X and showing that deplting that commidty will increase price (if demand is stable) even ina free mrket shows you are the one missing some things. Firstly aleterntives may exist for the utility that X posseses and second with he right level of technology no commodity can ever be depleted because it can always be replenished.
Long term a free market is the most efficient system and therefore prices will be lowest. Does that make it impossible for short term cartels to exist (and please lt me note that most monopolies are caused by the interferene of goverments)? No. But that is only short term such cartels can never be stable long term. Just look at the prsioners dilemma as an example. In the end one of the cartel members will attempt to overthow the other. Alternatively a newplayer might come into exitence and go into competition with he catel. Eventually this will happen.
This!
Yup, don't wanna to go to prison. Get all the appropriate people, a well known reputable tax man and a lawyer. But that's thinking in the clouds. Unless you have 100Ghash/s machines to pay for all of it.
So you chose "Depends"?
I dont have a problem paying taxes
That's rare.
I wonder if the thread starter is a tax office investigator?
It's a trap! I was surprised someone didn't say something early. But I'm not & doubt anyone on this thread can live off bitcoins enough to make it worth the IRS's while ATM. And full disclosure - I chose "Depends."
So your view is that the baby dies?
I'm doubt anyone here wants babies to die or anyone for that matter. But when it comes to feeding my family - that comes first. Having a free market system doesn't mean babies have to die. I'm sure there will still be doctors that do pro bono work or charities to help pay for it. I think most people in this thread against socialized healthcare just want choice. They may choose to help a baby they know, but could care less about an alcoholic or crack addict.
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I'm actually quite surprised by the vote results. I personally think the "Depends" people could be lumped in with the "No" people so it is still 2/3s that wouldn't pay taxes. 1/3 is still a lot of people that would continue paying their taxes even w/o risks. I think one of the greatest benefits of bitcoin is the ability to pay only exactly what you want to pay because it is so difficult to steal (if you take the right security measures). And the first thing on that list of things to stop paying for is probably taxes.
