Cannibals all! or, Slaves without mastersFitzhugh, George
General
Cannibals all! or, Slaves without masters
Fitzhugh, George
Slave labor; Slavery -- Justification; Slavery -- United States; Working class
ascertained master, instead of an irresponsible and unascertained one.
There are some startling social phenomena connected with this subject of
labor and capital, which will probably be new to most of our readers.
Legislators and philosophers often puzzle their own and other people's
brains, in vain discussions as to how the taxes shall be laid, so as to
fall on the rich rather than the poor. It results from our theory, that
as labor creates all values, laborers pay all taxes, and the rich, in
the words of Gerrit Smith, "are but the conduits that pass them over to
government."
Again, since labor alone creates and pays the profits of capital;
increase and accumulation of capital but increase the labor of the poor,
and lessen their remuneration. Thus the poor are continually forging new
chains for themselves. Proudhon cites a familiar instance to prove and
illustrate this theory: A tenant improves a farm or house, and enhances
their rents; his labor thus becomes the means of increasing the tax,
which he or some one else must pay to the capitalist. What is true in
this instance, is true of the aggregate capital of the world: its
increase is but an increased tax on labor. A., by trade or speculation,
gets hold of an additional million of dollars, to the capital already in
existence. Now his million of dollars will yield no profit, unless a
number of pauper laborers, sufficient to pay its profits, are at the
same time brought into existence. After supporting their families, it
will require a thousand of laborers to pay the interest or profits of a
million of dollars. It may, therefore, be generally assumed as true,
that where a country has gained a millionaire, it has by the same
process gained a thousand pauper laborers: Provided it has been made by
profits on foreign trade, or by new values created at home--that is, if
it be an _addition_ of a million to the capital of the nation.
A nation borrows a hundred millions, at six per cent., for a hundred
years. During that time it pays, in way of tax, called interest, six
times the capital loaned, and then returns the capital itself. During
all this time, to the amount of the interest, the people of this nation
have been slaves to the lender. He has commanded, not paid, for their
labor; for his capital is returned intact. In the abstract, and
according to equity, "the use of an article is only a proper subject of
charge, when the article is consumed in the use; for this consumption is
the consumption of the labor of the lender or hirer, and is the exchange
of equal amounts of labor for each other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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