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Viliam comments on Crazy Ideas Thread - October 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Comments (114)
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.
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?
Do you think a person stops being a slave if the slave owner gives them 2 hours of free time per day?
Depends on what the state spends the money on and what Evil Corp spends the money on.