Re: Excessively energy-consuming software considered malware?

[Attila Lendvai]

hi Hartmut and Martin,

i have just found this draft email, and i'm sending it to you two directly in 
the hope that you will find these thoughts useful/interesting, but i don't want 
to further annoy the mailing list with this topic.


> Undermining the governments ability to raise tax also means undermining
> the ability to build schools, kindergartens, public libraries, public
> transport, streets, etc. Who is going to pay and provide all of this, If
> there is no democratically controlled() government?


there's plenty of past examples of financing these things without the 
government collecting the necessary funds. also, these things are only a tiny 
fraction of the government's budget.

if you want to dig deeper, then a book titled 'The Machinery of Freedom' 
discusses the various alternative forms of financing in more detail 
(http://daviddfriedman.com/#mybooks).


> You might argument that this will then be paid be wealthy people - but


the vast majority of the taxes are not taken from the wealthy, but from the 
masses. the well-connected easily pays for the marginal cost of the tax 
consultants, lawyers, judges, offshore entities, and whatnot... and ultimately 
buy/corrupt the entire political system.

and especially so for inflation, which is straight out a tax that siphons the 
purchasing power from people who hold cash equivalents (i.e. the poor), to the 
people who own assets (i.e. the wealthy)... who are also closer to the source 
of new money, and therefore spend it first on the market, when it has not yet 
elevated the prices. see the Cantillon effect: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cantillon#Monetary_theory

which here reminds me of:

“In a just society, it is shameful to be poor. In a corrupt society, it is 
shameful to be rich.”
        — Confucius (551–479 BC), 'The Analects', Chapter VIII, paraphrased

this is the original:

“When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are things to be 
ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honor are things to be 
ashamed of.”
%       — Confucius (551–479 BC), 'The Analects', Chapter VIII 
(邦有道貧且賤焉恥也，邦無道富且貴焉恥也。)

--
• attila lendvai
• PGP: 963F 5D5F 45C7 DFCD 0A39
--
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than 
the risk it took to blossom.”
        — Anaïs Nin (1903–1977)