No return

When certain things are put in place, there is no turning back. If they have momentum they will settle in and create a new reality. Tax increases are a good example. I've seen them creep up, they are never coming down. I remember when 15% VAT seemed unthinkable, that it would destroy spending. We are now at 20%, which is seen as destroying spending. Where I live now, America, they ruck back and forth on tax constantly, keeping it from ever really going anywhere if they can help it. There is no VAT, its a sales tax set by the different states. This is malleable and does change. The tax on fuel and cigarettes are mobile. And no one kicks too hard against them as the tax comes in on things that can be seen as a bit bad.
 The internet has presented huge problems for the tax hawks, positioning themselves off shore, putting their physical presence in the cheapest places and charging no sales tax for their products. They are in trouble for the little tax they have worked out they have to pay, employing a legion of accountants to spot the loopholes left by an old economy. Sounds bad, but your books and music, if you buy physical product any more, are a lot cheaper and good in a way that smoking and boozing it up are not.
There are some who have really figured out how to take advantage of the new reality. Ticketmaster is a great example. I'm paying you a convenience charge? Get fucked! But I do want to see that band though.
The world has always been the same with people seeing what we are going to need, though we don't know it yet, Tetrapak, Amazon, Apple and then they mint it. The governments then go back to the old methods, which all of us hate and drag out the party out as long as they can.
So what's coming next? I keep hearing about bitcoin a new digital peer to peer currency whose value is based in the old for now, that someone made up. Lets see how that goes.