A post submitted by CGI member Morgan.

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https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/modern-slave

Authored by Josh Stylman via The Brownstone Institute,

Most people hear ‘modern slavery’ and picture trafficking victims or sweatshop workers—suffering that’s clearly visible, obviously wrong, and comfortably distant from their daily lives. What if the most effective slavery in history isn’t hidden—but public, celebrated, and defended by the very people it enslaves?

I understand that comparing contemporary life to slavery will make some readers uncomfortable. That discomfort is the point. We’ve been conditioned to reserve the word ‘slavery’ for its most extreme historical forms, but slavery is fundamentally about the extraction of labor through coercion—regardless of whether that coercion is applied with whips or withholding.

To be clear: I’m not minimizing the horrific brutality of historical slavery or the ongoing horrors of contemporary trafficking. Chattel slavery involved unimaginable physical cruelty, family separation, and dehumanization that scarred generations. The whip, the auction block, the chain—these were instruments of terror that reduced human beings to property through violence and degradation.

I recognize that freedom and slavery exist on a spectrum. Between the plantation owner’s whip and complete autonomy lies a range of arrangements—serfdom, indentured servitude, debt bondage, and various forms of regulated participation in society. Most people would place our current system somewhere in the middle of this spectrum, arguing we have enough choices and protections to avoid the ‘slavery’ label.

The Invisible Shackles

The genius of contemporary slavery isn’t the whip, it’s the W-2. It’s not the chain, it’s the mortgage payment. It’s not the overseer with a gun, it’s the IRS agent with a lien.

Think I’m being dramatic? Let’s examine the mechanics.

You surrender 30-50% of your labor before you ever see it. If you refuse, men with guns will eventually arrive at your door. The extraction is comprehensive and inescapable: earn money, pay income tax; own property, pay property tax; spend money, pay sales tax; save money, lose to inflation tax; invest successfully, pay capital gains tax; start a business, pay for licenses; run a profitable business, pay corporate tax; give money away, pay gift tax; die with assets, pay inheritance tax. Every economic action becomes a revenue opportunity for the system that owns your labor.

You can’t opt out of funding wars you oppose, surveillance systems that monitor you, or bureaucracies that regulate your choices. Your ‘property’ can be seized for unpaid taxes, even if you own it outright.

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You can lighten the load by refusing to take on gratuitous obligations, and going minimalist. It's aa great way to fight the system. BUT THAT'S SOOOOO INCONVENIENT!!!!!!! Oh really?

Oh well. 'Tis a matter of priorities, huh? Well, enjoy your servitude to the demiurge.

Morgan
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MIGHT AS WELL ADD THE COMMENTARY POSTED BY MIKE RIVERO

“The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison.”

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

What if the most effective slavery in history isn’t hidden—but public, celebrated, and defended by the very people it enslaves?

What if the most effective slavery in history makes its subjects grateful for their subjugation?

Historical slaves at least knew they were enslaved. The violence was visible, the coercion obvious, the enemy identifiable. Today’s slaves are convinced they’re consumers.

But here’s the real masterpiece: you’ve been convinced this is freedom.