tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post3215930496498722304..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: Libertarians and "Slavery"Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-55028204990009444802011-05-16T18:52:32.252-04:002011-05-16T18:52:32.252-04:00True, the Pauls are operating in an old American t...True, the Pauls are operating in an old American tradition.<br /><br />We have lots of old, stupid traditions.<br /><br />I didn't try to offer a definition of slavery so as not to get sidetracked, but yours is a good one, and it goes a long way toward refuting the Libertarian canard that taxation is slavery.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-70333847500667959092011-05-16T12:56:47.482-04:002011-05-16T12:56:47.482-04:00I would say two things: first, that slavery is no...I would say two things: first, that slavery is not the theft of another person's labor. Slavery is best described as a state of dishonor so pervasive that it is equivalent to social death (I think this is Orlando Patterson's phrase). A slave has no status as a legal person: their testimony is valueless, they cannot contract marriage, they cannot in law have any children of their own. In some societies, a slave's owner, not the slave, is subject to punishment for crime, because slaves are so much nonpersons that they cannot even commit crimes.<br /><br />Second, it's worth remembering that there's a long Anglo-American history of using the term "slavery" to describe things that are very far from slavery when defined in this way (which I happen to think is the correct way). The colonists thought that having the salaries of colonial officials be paid by the English government was a form of slavery. The Secessionists of 1860 thought that being unable to practice black enslavement in US territories would itself be a form of slavery.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08993570411881726772noreply@blogger.com