Capitalism v. Slavery

A number of Articles yesterday dealt with the issues of Slavery:

Capitalism & slavery
By Donald J. Boudreaux,Thursday, February 17, 2005

To begin with, the ethical and political principles that support capitalism are inconsistent with slavery. As we Americans discovered, a belief in the universal dignity of human beings, their equality before the law, and their right to govern their own lives cannot long coexist with an institution that condemns some people to bondage merely because of their identity.

the enormous investment unleashed by capitalism dramatically increases the demand for workers. (All those factories and supermarkets must be manned.) Even if each individual factory owner wants to enslave his workers, he doesn't want workers elsewhere to be enslaved, for that makes it more difficult for him to expand his operations. As a group, then, capitalists have little use for slavery.

History supports this truth: Capitalism exterminated slavery.


February 17, 2005 Where There's Smoke, You're Fired
By Debra Saunders

How does freedom slip away? It doesn't happen all of a sudden, without warning. It erodes in stages

Her real thesis lies in rejection the Weyco claim to have fired Smokers for smoking even off-work as justified by a refusal to support unilateral lifestyle decisions.

"Unilateral lifestyle decisions": Think about the presumption behind that statement. The alternative -- multilateral lifestyle decisions -- allows other people, the government, even big corporations, to dictate what you can eat, what you can smoke, what you can drink. To work for Weyco Inc. is to be wholly owned by Weyco Inc

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It seems Capitalism is not inconsistent with Slavery, though this Author supports relevatively all of the Boudreaux ideation. His last statement holds great value, suggesting Capitalist opposition to Slavery must be dependent on a low Unemployment rate; ease of Labor conscription could mean the invasion of Civil Liberties by the Capitalists. The truth lies in the fact that every institution is as corruptable as be the Humans who guide it--even Capitalism and the free market. The Author turns to another Article to make his point:

$250 Billion and Counting
Time to come clean about the cost of Iraqi Freedom
Charles V. Peña

Compounding the problem is the fact that the president doesn't feel anyone in the administration should be held accountable for all the miscalculations about Iraq. According to Bush, "We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections. The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me."

But accountability is an ongoing process, not a one-time "moment." It is not at all clear that the election results mean the American people want to be stuck footing the bill for a war that could cost more than $300 billion, especially with the cost of the war driving the budget deficit for fiscal year 2004 to a record $427 billion.

Some would articulate the opine that the Bush administration utilizes 'the Fuhrer principle' named after a infamous predecessor on the World stage. This Author believes Democracy, or the even more-natural American Republic is not fulfilled by a simple, every four years Ballot.
He suggests most Americans are currently educated, and used to taking Tests. He would propose every Candidate for any Office must get the Signiture of at least 15% of the Voters within the Voting area to be considered a Candidate. Then all Voters must take a hour-long Test along with the Candidates; said Candidate with the highest number of Answers common to the highest number of Voters, will be declared the Winner. Recall to be made automatic with the Tests being taken every Year, and the Candidate recalled if he gets less than 60% on the Test. lgl