I just spent the past few days taking care of tax issues.

In the United States, there is a growing controversy as to whether or not a national income tax -- a tax placed on individual labor (not referring to corporate tax, or to state and local tax) is legal. Truthfully, I do not have a rock solid understanding of the issue. What I do know, though, is that it is not as clear cut as it may seem; individuals have intentionally refused to pay tax, been taken to court by the IRS (the US tax authority), and have won. In other words, the court said they didn't have to pay the tax. The IRS vs. Kuglin case is the most visible example of this; see this writeup for more. Also recommended are the following films, available for viewing free on Google Video: America: Freedom to Fascism, The Money Masters, Monopoly Men, and Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve.

The scam isn't going to last forever. Right now, the cost of government is outrageously high, but the Internet is going to change that. A true intermediary that exists to make connections -- like Google, or Second Life -- will, one day, find it advantageous to introduce their own currency. This will open up some clever systems of accounting, facilitate profiting from exchange rate fluctuations, and will be a key step in how the Internet will help disrupt the nation-state model of governance.

To a large extent, 2.0 is about pushing the cost of everything down -- including the cost of government.