Democracy
and capitalism have very different beliefs about the
proper distribution of power. One believes in a completely
equal distribution of political power, 'one man, one
vote', while the other believes that it is the duty
of the economically fit to drive the unfit out of
business and into economic extinction. 'Survival of
the fittest' and inequalities in purchasing power
is what capitalist efficiency is all about. Individuals
and firms become efficient to be rich. To put it in
its starkest form, capitalism is perfectly compatible
with slavery. The American South had such a system
for more than two centuries. Democracy is not comparable
with slavery.
-- Lester Thurow
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*
The
essence of all slavery consists in taking
the product of another's labor by force. It
is immaterial whether this force be founded
upon ownership of the slave or ownership of
the money that he must get to live.
-- Leo Tolstoy
"Money
is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable
from the old simply by the fact that it is
impersonal - that there is no human relation
between master and slave”
-- Leo Tolstoy
|
|
|
*
“I
freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed
a thousand more if only they knew they were
slaves.”
-- Harriet
Tubman
|
Not
only do I pray for it, on the score of human dignity,
but I can clearly forsee that nothing but the rooting
out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our
union, by consolidating it in a common bond of principle.
-- George Washington
|
*
...nothing
on earth can stop man from feeling himself born
for liberty. Never, whatever may happen, can
he accept servitude; for he is a thinking creature.
-- Simone Weil
|
 |
In
war the strong make slaves of the weak, and in peace
the rich make slaves of the poor. We must work to
live, and they give us such mean wages that we die.
We toil for them all day long, and they heap up gold
in their coffers, and our children fade away before
their time, and the faces of those we love become
hard and evil. We tread out the grapes, and another
drinks the wine. We sow the corn, and our own board
is empty. We have chains, though no eyes behold them;
and are slaves, though men call us free.
-- Oscar Wilde
Human
slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical
slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future
of the world depends.
-- Oscar Wilde
Freedom
Day
- February 1
End
Slavery Day
- December 2
