What kind of freedom is it when people work full time and go into debt, just to pay their obligations for all the stuff judged essential for modern life? From J.B. Shurk at americanthinker.com:
In writer Taylor Sheridan’s Western series, 1923, there is a great scene in the third episode (which I will paraphrase) when the show’s Montana cattle-ranching family rides into town and finds a man selling futuristic wares on the street. What’s that crazy thing? Well, ma’am, it’s a washing machine. And that? A refrigerator for keeping food cold. Oh, my. How do they work? They run on electricity through power lines straight into your home. They are modern conveniences that do your chores for you.
Amid the general euphoria among those seeing such strange inventions for the first time, one of the brash, young cowboys asks discerningly, “So you sell electricity, and then you rent all the things that need electricity?” The salesman reluctantly agrees but insists the new appliances will provide time for fun and leisure. “But that ain’t more leisurely,” the young cowboy replies, “because we gotta work more to pay for all this stuff.” The salesman quickly points out that every home in New York City will soon have all these technologies and more. The cowboy shakes his head in disgust and provides a fine lesson on economic freedom: “No, here’s the thing, we buy all this stuff, we’re not working for ourselves anymore. We’re working for you.”
I wish every American (especially the youngest generations) would watch that scene a hundred times and think clearly about its implications. What does it say about our way of life when most of us pay so many different kinds of recurring bills just to stay in our own homes? Property taxes, municipal fees, state taxes, federal taxes, water, electric, natural gas — all just to get started. Want to communicate with the outside world or enjoy some basic entertainment? Those services will require more subscription fees that will certainly rise in price without end. It is almost impossible to own any home free from the threat of future encumbrances. Even a remote dweller in a forgotten cabin in the distant woods still owes the taxman — and failure to pay means some government agent will eventually knock on his hard-to-find door and seize that cabin in the government’s name. One’s private home is never really one’s own.
Property is theft comrade.
Hands off my stack now, we’re all in this together.
This just in from Pearl Jam:
Not For You