Re: Capitalism 101: was Re: Terror Kids...

From: Forrest Bishop (forrestb@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Wed Apr 10 2002 - 12:22:38 MDT


----- Original Message -----
From: Wei Dai <weidai@eskimo.com>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 9:58 AM
Subject: Re: Capitalism 101: was Re: Terror Kids...

> > And what's the deal with not buying products made in China? What cause
> > does that serve?

LDC:
> Slave labor. As long a China tolerates slavery, the U.S. should
> not be trading with them. I don't buy that cultural relativist
> nonsense--slavery is wrong, always has been wrong, and always will
> be wrong, and must not be supported or tolerated.

  Then one would have to refrain from purchasing products made by income-tax slaves as well. Total tax on the natural person
(income, sales, B&O, and so on) in the US is somewhere north of 40%. It's even worse in Europe. Debt-servitude -paying back real
labor for fictious fiat-currency loans- adds perhaps another 20-30%, leaviing the producer with maybe 20-30% of his initial
purchasing power. By comparison, the taxation rates in the most despotic feudal regimes never rose above ~30%; anything higher would
cause the serfs to either starve or overthrow the despot. A slave on a cotton plantation in the American South was 'taxed' at about
10%, i.e. 90% of his product had to be returned as slave-upkeep (hence the practice died out).

LDC:
> > and I further believe that most of the money received from abroad
> > for Chinese goods goes to support the government, not independent
> > businessmen.

WD:
> Do you really think China's export industry can be competitive if that
> were true?

What is the income-tax rate in China? I think I heard 13% flat, as in the reconstituted Soviet Union. By this measure, they are more
advanced than the US.

--
Forrest Bishop
Chairman, Institute of Atomic-Scale Engineering
www.iase.cc


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