It’s going to be more and more difficult for nation states to continue imposing taxes on their citizens, as competition for tax havens heat up, and as leaks like this erode public trust.
Nation states that rely on taxation to finance operations will eventually be outcompeted.
Nation states that rely on taxation to finance operations will eventually be outcompeted.
https://twitter.com/bbcnews/status/1444885774541934599
Nations don’t reproduce, of course, unlike living things, but their influence is memetic and their ability to coerce citizens is a function of their ability to coerce the wealthiest of the world.
And increasingly, both are at historically low numbers.
And increasingly, both are at historically low numbers.
The absolute kicker might come when it’s not just difficult to coerce the wealthiest to pay taxes, but difficult to coerce anybody, because crypto makes tax avoidance easy as pie.
This is similar to vaccine hesitancy & lockdown compliance in US & UK.
“One rule for them, one rule for the rest of us” will lead to mass defection, overwhelming the state’s capacity to enforce.
Eventually the status quo will break the way that elites are already behaving.
“One rule for them, one rule for the rest of us” will lead to mass defection, overwhelming the state’s capacity to enforce.
Eventually the status quo will break the way that elites are already behaving.
Taxation is as much a social contract as it is law.
Realistically, it would be impossible for any state to have the capacity to enforce tax avoidance en masse.
Once collective belief in that social contract is eroded, there’s probably no going back.
Realistically, it would be impossible for any state to have the capacity to enforce tax avoidance en masse.
Once collective belief in that social contract is eroded, there’s probably no going back.
Whether you think taxation is “good” or “bad” doesn’t matter, just like how it didn’t matter if you thought whether religion was “good” or “bad” in Europe before the Enlightenment.
Social norms that are broken by those who enforce them will be unlikely to persist.*
Social norms that are broken by those who enforce them will be unlikely to persist.*
*Unless those that enforce them develop sufficient state capacity to do so, preventing defection. This means that nations like China and North Korea will likely be able to continue doing so for a time, and the USA will for a time, too.
I’m not sure how this will affect international relations, but it’s likely this means Western democratic nations will decline in their influence. This is of course a bit scary because their military might is what’s challenging China & Russia right now.
Hopefully the military that will inevitably get defunded by Western democratic states will have its slack picked up by private citizens or smaller city-states and we’ll be able to tip the scale of military might away from totalitarian control.
It might not be a bad thing that military power becomes less concentrated in a few powerful nations, and more evenly spread out across the globe. That’s the optimistic case though. 🤞
This is already all playing out. China’s already outright banned cryptocurrency. Smaller nations like El Salvador & Panama are trying to divest their economies from reliance on USD.
Let’s see where this goes. This is an interesting time to be alive for sure. 😬
Let’s see where this goes. This is an interesting time to be alive for sure. 😬
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
