Technological advances portend a time in the not too distant future when governments will be forced to turn to new ways of gathering revenue in a global economy. In the Information Age, the new source of wealth is not mainly material. It is information. Knowledge extraction, integration and application are replacing the shipment of raw materials from remote locations to manufacturing centers as the dominant world business. Knowledge has become the main source of economic value.
Matter matters less and less.
Knowledge and ideas matter more and more. Labor in the global economy is highly mobile. It is one thing to rely on an income tax when people work in factories and taxes are deducted monthly. But the income tax was an Industrial Age solution meant for Industrial Age employers and family structure. It will be much more difficult to rely on an income tax when entrepreneurs are multiplying by the millions.