https://www.lewrockwell.com/2026/02/paul-craig-roberts/the-substitution-of-a-tariff-for-the-income-tax-would-re-create-free-americans/

The Substitution of a Tariff for the Income Tax Would Re-Create Free Americans

By Paul Craig Roberts

On February 25, I wrote on this website that the most important part of President Trump’s State of the Union address was the refusal of Democrats to stand if they agreed with his statement: “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”

Actually, there is an equally important element in his address, perhaps more important, and that is President Trump’s statement that tariffs would eventually replace the system of income taxation. This is perhaps the most important sentence ever stated in a state of the union address. As far as I can tell, the only attention it received was that the Supreme Court had recently invalidated Trump’s tariffs.

As I have pointed out for decades to no avail–not even libertarians have noticed–the income tax enacted in 1913 converted free Americans into serfs or slaves. The reason I can say this is that the historical definition of a free person is a person who owns his own labor. Serfs and slaves do not own their own labor. Serfs owed a portion of their labor to their feudal lord. Normally it did not exceed 30% of their labor. Slaves owed 50% of their labor to their owners, the other half of their labor going to their own maintenance as an effective and loyal workforce. ......

There is no way around the fact that the historical definition of a free person is a person who owns his own labor.