Slavery: Beholden to the State

Slave of the State

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines Freedom as:
“1: the quality or state of being free: as
a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : independence
c: the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous "

And Liberty as:
"1: the quality or state of being free:
a: the power to do as one pleases
b: freedom from physical restraint
c: freedom from arbitrary or despotic control
d: the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges
e: the power of choice"

The antithesis of Freedom and Liberty is Slavery,

Slavery is defined as:
"1: drudgery , toil
2: submission to a dominating influence
3 a: the state of a person who is a chattel of another b: the practice of slaveholding"

In slavery or bondage an individual is not free to enjoy choice, nor free to enjoy the product of his own labor. A slave works under the domineering influence of another, the slave's time, talent and effort, as the slave is considered chattel, belongs to another.

Are we then, through progressive taxation not coerced into working under an onerous obligation?

Consider this: Joe works hard, has worked hard for years and is relatively successful at making a living. After 10 years in the workforce he is making $100K a year. $100K a year in compensation for 52 weeks of 50 hours a week.

Now 28% of his income immediately vanishes in the form of federal income tax, as well as another 7.65% as his portion of federal payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare). Sate income taxes run him 4% of his income. There are also property taxes, gas taxes, service charges on phones etc that he pays to the tune of 3% of his annual income. For the sake of argument lets say that Joe saves 10% of his earnings and spends on average $50K in maintaing his household etc and that the sales tax rate in his community is 7% making his total sales tax outlay 3.5% of his annual income. Granted,these figures are rough, but it is easily estimated that Joe's total tax outlay is roughly 46% of his income.

Now I will concede that there are certain uses of tax dollars that are necessary at both the state and federal level, but entitlement, welfare and other social spending programs do not fall under that genre. I personally would even go so far as to say that education should be privatized, as it could be ran much more efficiently than it currently is.

The rough numbers indicate that 50% of the federal budget goes into welfare programs, medical programs, social security, etc, etc, so if Joe Works 2600 hours a year and 50% of the 46% (1196 hours of his labor) he is taxed goes to social programs, he is working for the well being some one else 23% (598 hours, or roughly 12 weeks) of the time. He has no say about the use of 46% of his output, and 23% of his total productive time goes directly to support some one else.

Consider these points:
*What happens to Joe's house if he doesn't pay property taxes? Do we really own property or are we just "leasing" it from the government?

*What happens to Joe if he refuses to pay income taxes?

Is Joe effectively then, a slave to the state?


Quotes for Today:

"The power to tax is the power to destroy"
~John Marshall