If total public cryptography and lots of financial transactions come to the Net, will you pay taxes in the future? You won’t. This is one terrifying fantasy from the government standpoint … A whole lot of financial activity basically goes black, goes underground. And then you can’t tax transactions, you can’t track transactions. All you’ve got left to tax basically is possessions at that point and so you may see … property taxes going up and sales taxes disappearing.
Predictor: Brand, Stewart
Prediction, in context:In an interview that aired on PBS-TV in 1995, Internet pioneer Stewart Brand said: ”If total public cryptography and lots of financial transactions come to the Net, will you pay taxes in the future? You won’t. This is one terrifying fantasy from the government standpoint. It may not be a fantasy, because if lots of transactions go onto the Net and they’re completely encrypted in a way that they can’t be tracked, a whole lot of financial activity basically goes black, goes underground. And then you can’t tax transactions, you can’t track transactions. All you’ve got left to tax basically is possessions at that point and so you may see … property taxes going up and sales taxes disappearing.”
Biography:Stewart Brand founded Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link (WELL) in 1985 with Larry Brilliant. This was one of the first and most intellectually active online “communities.” (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: June 15, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: Tax Issues
Name of publication: PBS-TV Interview in San Francisco
Title, headline, chapter name: High Stakes in Cyberspace
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cyberspace/brand.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney