Reforming Slavery?

'Cause I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman
And you're working for no one but me
--The Beatles

A common pro-tax argument is that taxes enable the federal government to take care of people and keep them safe. As Jacob Hornberger observes, pro-slavery arguments can readily follow similar rationalization. For example, aren't slaves typically provided jobs, food, clothing, housing, healthcare, and retirement?

Yet, every slave knows that freedom entails the inalienable right to decline that type of guaranteed security. Freedom entails the right to leave a plantation and engage freely in economic enterprise.

Various proposals for 'tax reform' are similar to calls for 'slavery reform.' Reform might make the slave life less objectionable, but it still keeps the institution in place.

Same thing for tax reform. Abolition is the only measure that provides genuine freedom for today's slaves.