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#1454272
Osiris
Liberty for myself, slavery for others.
People who are in favor of contractual slavery should admit to being willing to sell themselves into slavery should the need arise.
10/2/2012 10:23:49 AM
#1454275
Lol
I support Liberty! Now sell yourself into slavery!
10/2/2012 10:26:18 AM
#1454280
myheadhurts
free market means money for the few is more important than freedom for the many
10/2/2012 10:30:06 AM
#1454288
thatotherguy
And this is why people get payed after they finish doing their work.
10/2/2012 10:43:33 AM
#1454302
nazani14
When has that ever been a common practice?
Never read about the indentured servants of the Colonial era, did you.
10/2/2012 11:05:02 AM
#1454303
Sasha
In some cultures, parents used to sell their children into slavery when they couldn't support them. I'm thinking of the Aztecs, but I'm sure there were others.
If you want to be a slave so badly, LibertyNow, advertise for a Dom on the Internet.
10/2/2012 11:08:34 AM
#1454334
Old Viking
My reaction to slavery depends on whether I'm the slaver or the slavee.
10/2/2012 12:44:06 PM
#1454350
Detrs
Because it's not labor that's being contracted, it's labor-power. Gah. Marx dealt with this over 100 years ago, but then these folks don't read him.
10/2/2012 1:28:32 PM
#1454354
farpadokly
I knew it was coming... I knew this was the endgame of the so-called "libertarians" (ie, social darwinists).
What would happen is that people would use their already-existing power and wealth to enslave people. What it takes to not be able to realise this obvious fact is to have killed half your brain by internalising a completely unrealistic market-led model of human behaviour.
10/2/2012 2:03:28 PM
#1454374
Alencon
Who ever pays for services in advance?
10/2/2012 4:11:21 PM
#1454375
Reckoner
This has to be a troll. Not even Libertarians are stupid enough to advocate slavery.
10/2/2012 4:15:44 PM
#1454384
Wehpudicabok
If this is some argument regarding some currently divisive political issue (healthcare maybe?), it eludes me.
There is a difference between mandated labor and slavery. Someone obligated to work still has certain rights, which slaves do not. Therefore this is a false equivalence.
10/2/2012 4:36:34 PM
#1454392
Sounds like my lazy brother.
10/2/2012 5:02:17 PM
#1454395
tracer
Admittedly, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. constitution only forbids involuntary servitude.
So, theoretically, you should be able to contract to sell all your services to a single individual or organization for the rest of your life.
But, as other experts on contract law here have attested, if you refuse to work for somebody after having accepted payment to do so, you are in "default" and your creditor has legal remedies available to him. Those legal remedies do not include strapping you to a post and whipping you.
10/2/2012 5:32:20 PM
#1454450
fishtank
Not really how contracts work..
10/3/2012 2:39:22 AM
#1454453
anothga
"giving me a badly-needed $20"
Are you Slenderman?
10/3/2012 2:45:23 AM
#1454484
Paler_Face
Having read a bit about evolution, I would say that it is a terrible model to base a civilisation on. We can create one where a lot more people will be happy, and not just the meanest monkey on the mountain.
10/3/2012 4:03:35 AM
#1454516
Robespierre
Argument one: contracts are small violations of individual freedom made for the sake of commercial stability. Their scope should be limited as much as it is practical.
Argument two: present contract limit the freedom to enter future contracts
Argument three: contracts between parts of unequal power typically limit severly the freedom of the weakest, but they are very sketchy as to the obligations of the strongest. A typical 19th century contract would force the worker to do a job decided by the owner, in the way decided by the owner, at the speed decided by the owner, for arbitrary hours, forbade speaking and other disruptions, often interfered heavily with private life (i.e.:fired pregnant women), and allowed the owner to change the terms more or less at will, as well as charge fines to the worker, always according to the owner's judgement. The pay was also subject to arbitrary variations and often given late, as a way to force workers to remain at the factory or lose what was owed to them.
In modern Chinese factories, wages are also given late and fines often account for 1/4 to 1/3 of the nominal wage.
These conditions resurface whenever work regulations are eliminated, and even a libertarian could see that they are not desirable and not conducive to freedom, even in the strictest economic sense.
10/3/2012 5:13:56 AM
#1454699
motobreath
It started out normal, then went straight to whack job sect social Darwinism with an old testament twist.
10/3/2012 1:48:45 PM
#1454732
Ebon
And this is why I hate libertarians.
10/3/2012 5:23:02 PM
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