Hacker News Reader

Comment by anigbrowl | Hacker News Reader

A library is not loaning you property, it is a public good which you already paid for and have a right to use, the administrative overhead is for the convenience of all library users.

A corporation's activities are unknowable but not being a real person it is not entitled to an assumption of good faith and there is no particular right to create new legal entities. We should definitely know who the beneficial owners of any corporation are to reduce the potential for fraud.

View on HN

Other people also have a right to use. How do you prevent the tragedy of the commons without knowing who has what?

> How do you prevent the tragedy of the commons without knowing who has what?

Does this exact argument not apply to the "anonymous" corporations mentioned in the article?

Registering a corporation doesn't deny others utility of a communally owned good.

It does if that corporation is used to conceal income in a way that reduces the local tax base, which could negatively affect the utility of nearly all communally owned goods/services.

Corporations still have to file taxes, unclear how corporate registration requirements lead to tax fraud.

Tax avoidance, not tax fraud.

The article was about the ease of setting up series of shell companies, which can easily move money around the world in a hard-to-detect way in order to conceal profits made by people, with no way to determine who those people are or what their tax obligations are.

I'm not arguing against library cards. I'm showing how any rhetorical argument can be deployed with equal facility in the opposite direction.

I'm fairly certain most libraries would consider "loaning books" as one of the services they provide. The public good paid for by taxes is that they loan for free.

Part of the administrative overhead is making sure they get the books back.

If you don't pay local taxes, you haven't paid for it.

You don't even need a library card to use materials as often as you want; you only need a card to remove materials.

> which you already paid for

Unknowable without knowing who you actually are

Care to elaborate? Are you referring to taxpayers versus non-taxpayers, perhaps?

Not just taxpayers vs non-taxpayers, but WHERE you pay taxes. My taxes don’t pay for public libraries in other states or even other areas of my own state.

Aha, that's a good point.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com