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

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

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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: 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.