Thanks, what a wonderful answer.

I do not intend to use BitCoins to evade Tax. That would undermine a global system that at the moment has no recourse but taxes. I am South African, so not 100% familiar with the US taxation laws, but doubt very much they are different to our own.

The main reason I asked what I asked, is because I am currently writing about How to get to a world without a credit-based economic system. Bitcoin fits every requirement for acatalyst to Unified Global Autonomous Resource Based Economy, and the elimination of the trust factor is a stroke of genius.
Someone needs to write a layman's explanation of BitCoin and spread it into other systems. In that one stroke could come the end to many global inadequacies, from resource mis-management, to war, poverty hunger, health care and even education. for a summary of the work I am busy with, please see my blog pages under the pseudonym Rob Cayman : http://therantingsofrob.blogspot.com/2011/05/getting-to-a-better-world-without-money.html
and
http://therantingsofrob.blogspot.com/2011/05/getting-to-a-better-world-without-money.html

I promise that they are good reads even if my thinking is flawed.

I am definitely using and spreading the BitCoin concept!!! Awesome!!!

Hi, i'm completely new to BitCoin and am completely baffled by the concept, I'm also not 100% sure I'm asking these questions in the right place, but i will ask, and hopefully be pointed in the right direction.

1. is the 21 million bitcoins equal in value to the sum of global resources (including both physical, and  intellectual)?

2. according to what i've read, everything is transparent. Coupled with the fact that almost every country in the world considers it illegal not to pay tax on transactions, do i have any security from prosecution? or alternatively, why have governments not clamped down on bitcoins already?

3. Am i correct in saying that BitCoin is essentially a global unified on-line autonomous resource tracking system?

4. assuming that the answers to the previous questions are all positive, can BitCoins  be extended to function globally as a complete replacement for the current credit based economic system?

I hope that someone can either assist me or point me to someone who can

thanks