First anxiety: Neoliberal Pirate Party MPs

My ethical assumptions:

• Without taxes, there is no democratic state, no institutions, no infrastructure, no education, no welfare, no healthcare, no funds that are decided democratically about. Therefore, the payment of taxes is a legal and moral obligation.
• It is a just system only if everyone pays taxes by the same laws. Therefore, the tax laws must be enforced equally for everyone.

My questions / fears:

• Do the few Pirate Party MPs who (without prior discussions with the grassroots/base) lodged a criminal complaint against the Minister of Finance of German federal state North Rhine-Westphalia because of the buying of the “Steuer-CD” / tax CD (that reveals gigantic and organized tax evasions) have other aims than solely the strict enforcement of the rule of law?
• What do they think of amnesties for (specific) tax evaders? Do they lodge a criminal complaint about that?
• In their eyes, should the banking secret have restrictions, or is it considered to be the highest maxim?
• Should the democratic state levy direct and indirect taxes? Should this be controlled?

Second anxiety: Criminal state

My ethical assumptions:

• The state under the rule of law must under no circumstances commit illegal and unjust acts, and must under no circumstances support such, even indirectly.
• The state under the rule of law must not close its eyes to existing injustice, and must not act as if it did not exist.

My questions / fears:

• Will the state soon pay private “security” companies that spy on citizens’ computers to sell data about copyright infringement to prosectutors?
• When a search is judged illegal: Will found data still be used? (This is currently the case in Germany, I believe.)
• Will the due process of law soon play no role anymore, as long as ultimately somewhere anything illegal can be found? So that all constitutional provisions are shred?

Third anxiety: Condemation of all leaks

My ethical assumptions:

• Use public data, protect private data.
• For transparency and for the protection of privacy.
• For educated, enlightened, informed citizens within a democratic state who do not have to bow to a superior force of business, government or other organizations.

My questions / fears:

• WikiLeaks published in instances illegally obtained information, where unethical behavior by governments, companies, organizations is disclosed, which is important for the people to know. Resulting from the maxims behind arguments used now against the “Steuer-CD” / tax CD, will in future all publications of illegal information / leaks be condemned wholesale as reprehensible?

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