So the world is in an upheaval, every paradigm we grew up with is coming under stress, or being completely destroyed. Every assumption I had of where it would be today has been weirdly compromised. But that being said, a lot of things have evolved from the forces of "for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction", seems to be happening as well. Orwell's 1984 novel had entertained some directions that have come to pass, but again, reactions to them are showing up. The premise of dictatorial and overreaching governments that have the ability to snoop on everyone's private stuff are happening, but with the advancement of social media, and the ability for individuals to hide on them, has allowed for every politician and government to be monitored for any perceived missteps, and it to be made public around the world. Thus the populations now have some control on overreach. But of course there is more backlash from governments as they ramp up their oversight on everybody. It's interesting to note how quite a few individuals think they can push the boundaries of society, do a "live & in person", create a fiasco, record & post it on the internet and expect no repercussions.
Trying to get a handle on the future directions of stuff can be a bit confusing, I have to put it through my own ingrained society filter and see if anything makes sense on the other end. I think I'll start from the bottom, "meat & potatoes" approach. Everybody needs to survive, therefore sustenance & a roof over our heads to live. Once that has happened, the next thing is survival of the herd. We have tried many types of population discipline, from despotic, socialistic, democratic and capitalism and multiple mixtures of them all. None seems to create long term satisfaction to the masses, as aberrations develop in all of them over time, because unfortunately, they are run by humans, and we know how badly they handle things.
Up till now, all things were dealt with starting from a local platform, that being village, city, state, and country, then finally reaching the world. At each level, usually the amount of care or interest put out by individuals is lessened by how much impact those groups have on them, and only if it impacts them personally, do they actually react to it.
The interesting thing, is now that the World Wide Web, and social media has made the world a lot smaller, so has the overreach of multiple governments messing in the affairs of other countries, sometimes with both good and bad consequences. I see the need but not the methodology used. We now have a quasi sort-of world governance system in place with the United Nations, that creates penalties against countries that don't play by their rules.(not that some of the rules are not fair!) and even have a standing military to backup the more malicious infractions that occur. The unfortunate thing is that individuals in a country of any UN partner have little say in how it is operated, and the process to remove politicians that promote certain values that get put up the chain to create UN laws is so complex and almost impossible to do. Therefore individuals really don't have much control over the larger picture that occurs around them.
But the paradigms have been shifting so quickly these days, that a quick snapshot of it doesn't tell us much. other than confusing us. What I suspect may be happening is large rifts are starting to appear between alt left, right, and the "just leave me alone to run my life" personas. More and more people are getting tired of all levels of governments trying to control every aspect of the population and tax the hell out of them. From the 17th century, Louis XIV’s finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, famously declared that “the art of taxation"consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.”
The Governments of the world have had a lot of time to learn how to pluck us, unfortunately it's getting pretty cold out there without any feathers, thank God for global warming... So where do we go from here?
I think that the world wide web, and digital & Crypto Currencies have opened the genie's bottle, and I don't think it will ever be put back. They are trying, and all the governments are either coming out with competing versions or will try to outlaw or legislate complete NYC laws for them, which negates the whole point of why they were developed in the first place. But... there will always be outlier's against them, as there has always been an underground economy since the beginning of time.
On another note... G7 countries are suggesting minimum corporate taxes
But there are companies that have a valuation bigger than some governments and with the advent of some of them adding crypto to their purchasing mechanisms, is it possible that they are thinking of competing with governments themselves
So, just throwing it out there, what if some major company bought a large Island or a piece of land, not in control of any country and started their own Corporate Kingdom, and ran it on Crypto Currency, in fact if the property was big enough, they could invite like minded corporate companies to join them.
In the Nevada desert, Blockchains LLC aims to be its own municipal government
Is this a test of the system? So what would be the upside to doing this? If a Company bought an Island, how about no taxes to the population that resides there? therefore they wouldn't need to pay as much to them. If the company was large enough, the whole economy of that place could be handled by the profits they make from income on world sales. if you look at remote corporate micro economies like mining camps, large fishing vessels and cruise ships, there is no tax charged by the company (other than from the governments of the countries they reside in) to the people working there. It's run on the profits they make selling their product, so the model is there for it to work. Not only that, the whole point of Governments around the world keeping tabs on their populations, is only for tax collection. take that away and the need is greatly diminished.
Toss in sales and paid income done in Crypto Currency, and the ability to have your income kept private, there might be an exodus of people from high tax locations to get a job and move to a location like that. Also have the company's stock on the block chain, and everyone that works there gets a piece, that could grow as they advance their careers. Talking about that, how about voting on the block chain on things the company wishes to promote, with smart contracts for privacy and that any monies used by the company above a certain amount need to be voted on by every one.
I realize that it's not a perfect concept, and that there are rebels that would resent such an idea, But there will always be people that spray paint buildings and kids that get drunk at night at the park, puke, and throw their beer cans everywhere.
Initially I would expect resistance from a lot of governments, specifically with their own digital currencies, and trying to block Crypto, but if the model as I suggest works, I could see some governments competing to attract globally mobile investment by offering increasingly generous corporate tax rates and provisions.
But I also think that governments with different ideological leanings that might use more forceful methodologies to push their agendas. These are my ponderings, as misguided as they might be, The Future is the only one that knows and hasn't been speaking to me lately, I think I'll have a Scotch, and see if she drops by...
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