Originally Posted by TSGracchus

When anyone says "there is no middle ground here" I know for a fact there is a middle ground here. If there weren't, there wouldn't be a need to deny it.



Anyone who works and is also financially independent is doing so of their own free will. Anyone who works in order to pay the bills and feed his family is not. Either that, or you are defining the words "free will" so as to deprive them of all customary meaning.



Well, of course not! When you're running a market-driven business, you need to be able to expand or contract the work force rapidly to meet market demands. It makes much better sense in that case to rent your labor by the hour rather than buying it by the lifetime.

And that, by the way, is the ONLY reason why there is no longer legal slavery in the U.S.



Whose fault it is or isn't is utterly irrelevant to the entire question.

W/r/t freedom: You are making the classic libertarian mistake of supposing that the government is the only threat to freedom that exists. The government is potential the BIGGEST threat to freedom, but there are many other such threats; if not, we wouldn't need government at all.

Anyone with power is a potential threat to freedom. Anyone with wealth has power. The rich are a threat to freedom, and a part of the government's job is to restrain them.