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To: marcos who wrote (26933)	1/6/2003 3:19:47 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Marcos, I haven't figured it out fully and maybe economists could point out why it's bad, but I've thought for a while that the point of governments [and therefore tax] is primarily to defend and run the territory inside a border. Therefore, the stuff crossing the border should be where the income comes from to defend the border, police the interior, enforce contracts and negotiate on the commons outside the border [such as air quality, ocean protection, climate management, radio frequency management and so on]. Tax on big things [such as supertankers] is easier to manage than tax on small things [platinum watches bought by people visiting Hong Kong]. So, tax oil imports, LNG imports, coal imports, steel imports, sheep imports, car imports and so on. As you say, cut taxes on internal economic activity accordingly. But care needs to be taken with taxing imports or stupid activities can be caused by excessive import taxes. Japan grows rice at very high cost when they could buy it from Australia for very low cost. That's a self-defence mechanism I think, so their food supply can't be cut off. Better still is to cut government spending so the taxes needed are very low. Mqurice

To: marcos who wrote (26933)	1/6/2003 3:32:15 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

It won't work, amigo! I'm not trying to say it is not the right thing to do. It is! The problem is that such sensible measures upset the collusions created on a society that has been for too long time stable. It will upset the established order. Just as proof see how the Telecom Act of 1996 didn't work and it is now been reverted. The US is not a capitalist economy. It is a monopolistic capitalism at work. You break a Ma Bell today just to see it springing up alive and well a few years later. Dependency on oil? Well, just look to big oil companies salivating at an Iraq "liberated". Is it new? Of course not! Did anybody forget Mossadegh being replaced by the Shah of Iran. It was 50 years ago and the US is still at the same stage. Government sanctioned cartels such as IATA, patents, tariffs, regulations and other trade restrictions promoted the growth of monopolies. The fall of the communist economic model is followed by the fall of the monopolistic capitalism.