[thissideup]

You are restating exactly what you already said. Maybe you didn't understand.

Taxation implies increased tracking and auditing of the good being taxed, in this context surveillance could be justifiable.

Perhaps you're unable to imagine these consequences, but your claim that they have nothing to do with one another is just ignorant.

[ceejayoz]

Our Internet traffic is already heavily surveilled without this entirely hypothetical Internet tax you're proposing.

The phone system is a utility, and it's certainly not the fact that it's taxable that makes the TLAs interested in wiretapping it.

[thissideup]

Sorry, I did not mean to imply that taxation is necessary for surveillance.

What I'm proposing is that regulation is one way of legitimizing the role of surveillance. The government has a reason to be involved by virtue of the fact that it's made regulations.

I did a bad job in conveying that idea above. It's certainly possible my analysis is utterly incorrect as well.