And I'm assuming you'll be the first to forfeit your hard earned money for others. Right? Right?

i have, would, and do. what's your point, anonymous coward?
___________________________
.delusions of un mundo mejor.

want to believe it, and if anything, that's why this piece has values, despite its flaws ("we didn't confirm their story," /subliminal/ all niggers are liars). this piece safely places continuing american slavery in the mythical past, in the hands of naughty people in the Deep South, which no longer exists because atlanta has a black mayor today, or something. because it is something presented as happening "as late as the 50s," people can sustain the comforting falsehood that it doesn't happen here anymore. but at least the story is of slavery in the last century, that an improvement over the narrative that the Civil War Solved Everything. thus a small wedge in the wall that surrounds most americans' minds to the idea that slavery still happens here.

we enslave our prison populations, and give the profit from their labor to private companies owned by republican cronies and campaign supporters. we enslave our undocumented, allowing businesses to profit off of their undocumented status, even to torture and murder- tyson anyone? we enslave women and children, shut out of legal opportunities to support themselves, by lack of education or functional state services, who turn to prostitution and drug dealing to support themselves. often, the municipal policing agencies are the pimps of these people, or sit atop hierarchies of slavers who do. there's even "white slavery" here, i suspect meth has done a great deal towards integrating the modern american slave population.

anon c- i'm not nor have i ever been a "reparations" fan. i don't like the term, i don't like what it does to the working poor (divides us along racial lines). you ask: should we pay our hard earned money to the poor minority community? and i say: you are already paying your hard earned money to the undeserving. it's called taxation, and in today's system, so much of that goes to cronies who produce nothing and in fact spend it in ways that make your life worse. they're called the "have mores" and they are the real beneficiaries of republican policies. everybody else, including you, is getting screwed.

the solution is simple. the GDP and income of the federal govt and states are still HUGE amounts of money. without increasing a single tax on anyone else, you could easily acheive the kind of economic parity that i think we both want, while preserving all that stuff i know you care about, "individual freedom" and capitalism and the right to own stuff.

all that needs be done is 1)properly tax the wealthy 2)eliminate wasteful military spending. do you have any idea what the actual size of the DoD budget is, or upon what it is spent (and what you are getting for it?) ? next to it, all my wildest fantasy social programs combined are a tiny expenditure.

i really wish you libertarian types would learn some math. there is a difference, my friend, between the word "billions" and the word "trillions." please consider this.

That pretty much describes the only Bu$hCo-Cheneyburton motivation for the War on Terra that makes any sense.

No Hell below us
Above us, only sky

I couldn't agree with you more, but the rich will never give up what they stole willingingly, so we're going to have to claw it back.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

to the IRS so it can be wasted on war.
Why wouldn't I rather give it to neighbors in need?
(If you REALLY want to make a dent, donate to food banks and local tax-exempt charities (animal rescue, women's shelters, soup kitchens, boys' and girls' clubs, your public library) throughout the year, and get receipts (most will do this for you gladly). Make sure your donations cover your projected taxes -- i.e. what you owed last year plus 15% -- and then show all your donations on your tax return, canceling out your indenture to the fedgov. You can do this, and if enough of us non-fatcats do it, the government won't be able to finance its war. Just sayin' -- it might make for a lean December if you didn't start before tomorrow, but it might also be the greatest Christmas present we, the people, could give or get.)