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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Why am I a Slave to a Stranger?

Here is my question:

How does anyone in the U.S. Government justify making me a slave to other people?

Yes, I said it. A slave.

Allow me to explain. Let's say that we have two independent U.S. Citizens in our illustration. Me (John), and a fictitious character we will name Fred (no inference to anyone in particular). Now how did the U.S. Government make me a slave of Fred? They did it very simply.

Tomorrow I will wake up and go to work. I will put in a weeks worth of work and earn a wage for my labor. When the week ends, my employer will pay me for this labor. Before I get my cash though, my employer is required, by law to send a portion of the money I earned to the federal and state governments to cover my share of taxes. I'm not happy about the income tax, but I understand it and can deal with it. I want to pay my fair share for the roads, military and a few other commonly shared services these taxes support.

However, once Uncle Sam decides to "bail" another entity out, such as our fictitious colleague Fred, the money I earned is being taken from me and given to him. The problem is that there is no direct product or service being returned to me.

Let's say the government wants to "help" Fred with his mortgage or pay for his health care. Maybe Fred lost his job or bought a home, cars or other toys that were just too expensive for his income. I feel bad for Fred, but now my money is being taken from me involuntarily, and given to Fred, even if Fred is not contributing. So tomorrow I will wake up and go to work, and my money will be taken from me without my consent. Then the government gives my money to a guy named Fred, who I don't even know, and of which I will not receive any direct benefit in return.


This is actually worse that a slave relationship, because slave masters normally feed and house their slaves. In this case, Fred is more like a pimp, sending me out to do the work and taking my earnings.

Of course it gets worse than that. Since the government has promised not to take any additional sums of money from me now, they are borrowing the money from other sources. This not only enslaves me to Fred, but to the lender we will owe all this interest to in the future. In addition, this not only makes me a slave (or prostitute), but also forces people into slavery once they are born in the future.

So, I just want to know, what did I and future generations of U.S. Citizens do to deserve this?

8 comments:

  1. I think what you are experiencing is not slavery, but
    indentured servitude. Don't worry, it is also against
    the law. Keep me posted.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So, who is "Fred"? Is he GM or a person on welfare? What is the action that should be taken, in your opinion?

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Fred" can be anyone who receives government money. GM, welfare recipients, a person receiving mortgage assistance etc. Any entitiy that receives government money without returning a direct benefit to the majority of taxpayers.

    My answer is creating an economy where working is rewarded and the need for government assistance or bailouts is reduced. This would start with scrapping the Federal Income Tax and instituting a consumption tax, such as outlined at FairTax.com. $2 trillion of investment money is currently parked overseas to avoid capital gain/income tax. This money would be introduced into our economy if the investors were rewarded and not penalized, for bringing it into the U.S.
    I will dedicate a blog concerning this in the very near future.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey. Interesting. Sorry I don't have much time right now for discussion. You said that the military was a good thing. Do you think it's too big? Do you think it's okay for someone to take "your cash" and give it to "defense" contractors and attack other countries, like Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Why do you say it's your cash? What makes it your cash?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Answer to Duane, last question first. I believe a few scenarios may make a sum of money "my cash". Most commonly, when one entity agrees to provide another entity labor, services, products, value exchange or risk, in return for a sum of money, I believe that becomes the first entities money. In addition, inheritance, gifts etc... will also cause a sum of money to belong to an individual entity.

    As far as the military questions, I do not believe the military is too big, given present circumstances. The primary responsibility of our government is to provide military protection, which creates a benefit for all the countries citizens.

    The decisions that lead us to need a large and expanding military can certainly be debated, but here we are now. If using my tax dollars for our military or even private contractors to secure our countries interest in any part of the world is necessary, I am all for it. The part that is difficult is realizing that the information the average citizen is explosed too may not be all of the information necessary to make appropriate decisions. In this case, the average citizen must use their power to contact their congressional representatives and their power to vote, if elected officials abuse their power under false pretenses.

    I tend to lean toward the arguments of Ron Paul, Congressman of Texas, when it comes to many foreign matters. Most of them we have no business sticking our nose in. Energy dependence is one of the main reasons we do, leading me to believe energy independence would help eleviate the need to be proactive in other nations affairs.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Do you earn that cash alone, without a society? When you agree to take a job, do you not know that "my cash" is really only a percentage of the advertised wage? Would it be better, for instance, if instead of an employer telling you that you will make ten dollars an hour, you will make seven, knowing that three will go to the government?

    We can agree that we should fight corruption, but isn't what we call ours in some ways just an expression? What makes it ours?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi. Just dropping by to say this...
    Thank you so much for running this blog-- I enjoyed reading some of your posts. Looking forward for more soon. Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete