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