You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

James_Miller comments on Crazy Ideas Thread - October 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

7 Post author: Gunnar_Zarncke 06 October 2015 10:38PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (114)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: ChristianKl 08 October 2015 09:48:06PM 1 point [-]

That sound like slavery to me.

Comment author: James_Miller 08 October 2015 11:06:10PM 3 points [-]

More like taxation. You are not obligated to work, but if you do a part of your earnings goes to someone else.

Comment author: buybuydandavis 09 October 2015 01:03:19AM *  2 points [-]

More like taxation.

Free Range Slavery. Slavery 4.0. More pleasant for the cattle, more productive for the human ranchers.

AFAIK, an anarchist fellow named Stefan Molyneux came up with the idea of taxation as the latest iteration of slavery as the forced extraction of value by human ranchers from their human cattle.

I'm not an anarchist myself, but I like the analysis.

The Story of Your Enslavement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A

The Handbook of Human Ownership - A Manual for New Tax Farmers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k67_imEHTPE

Comment author: Viliam 09 October 2015 11:14:48AM 4 points [-]

I don't like the proposed idea, but let's not expand the meaning of the words.

Slavery typically means you have a boss who directly tells you what to do, and not only during your working time but 24/7.

Taxation typically means you have to pay money to the boss, but the details of how you spend your time are your choice.

To bring it in the near mode, if someone would replace the law "you pay 50% of your earnings to the state" by "you pay 30% of your earnings to the state, and 20% to the Evil Corp", you probably wouldn't even notice the difference. Slightly different tax forms, maybe having to fill more papers. On the other hand, you would certainly notice if someone would make you a slave.

Yes, there is a common superset for both slavery and taxation, which means "someone else is using your life to make themselves even more rich", but there is either a different word for that, or someone has to invent a new one.

Comment author: buybuydandavis 11 October 2015 03:07:40AM *  3 points [-]

Slavery typically means you have a boss who directly tells you what to do, and not only during your working time but 24/7.

Not at all. Slavery is human ownership. Slavery is the right to compel by force.

The interesting part of Molyneux's analysis is looking at slaves as a herd the human rancher wants to extract value from, and showing how the value extraction strategies have improved over time. Or at least arguing that they have.

What you describe is just one of many strategies of extracting value by force from your property.

It would be very interesting to see a real accounting analysis of slavery over time. What were the margins for a US plantation? For serfs? Has anyone actually seen these numbers?

Comment author: ChristianKl 10 October 2015 02:53:14PM 2 points [-]

Slavery typically means you have a boss who directly tells you what to do, and not only during your working time but 24/7.

Do you think a person stops being a slave if the slave owner gives them 2 hours of free time per day?

Comment author: Good_Burning_Plastic 10 October 2015 10:23:59AM -1 points [-]

To bring it in the near mode, if someone would replace the law "you pay 50% of your earnings to the state" by "you pay 30% of your earnings to the state, and 20% to the Evil Corp", you probably wouldn't even notice the difference.

Depends on what the state spends the money on and what Evil Corp spends the money on.

Comment author: ChristianKl 09 October 2015 08:27:21AM 0 points [-]

For it to be taxation it has to be done by a government.

Comment author: James_Miller 09 October 2015 03:53:26PM 1 point [-]

But the cost to the individual is the same.

Comment author: ChristianKl 10 October 2015 03:06:03PM 1 point [-]

Yes, but we still don't let private entities go around and force people to pay taxes to them.

Comment author: James_Miller 10 October 2015 10:15:56PM 3 points [-]

Divorce settlements often involve men being forced to pay a percentage of their income, and student loan obligations are not discharged in bankruptcy.