You know, I would already surmise that most Americans are already serfs. The US is backing quickly out of capitalism and quickly merging into a fascist system with some theocracy on the side for good measure.

The corporations run the show. They have the money and ability to leverage congress to impose restrictions or guidelines for how consumers will spend or use their wealth.

How are they then serfs? Because more and more of wages are being turned into taxation. Over sixty percent of the average income goes back into the government coffers almost immediately. That is huge. It basically means that most of the work you are doing is specifically for supporting the government and that makes you a serf. The problem is, it's getting worse not better. More and more income is being funneled back to the government and they won't be happy until every cent earned is controlled by them.

My state has just announced a new plan they have, called the hazardous substance tax. Guess what it is on? Gasoline. They are getting clever, instead of just saying they want to raise the gas tax, they use a title that will get people to support it by calling it hazardous substance. Using once again the "green" terminology to get people to sympathize with their supposed environmental concerns. I shake my head when I hear people use the argument that it's for helping to clean up the environment and gasoline products pollute. No, it's a new tax and they are trying to sneak it by you by using a clever disguise. They don't care about the environment, they only want more money.

My main concern is with the belief that we must accept a capitalist mode of production and be "ruled by it as by the blind forces of Nature". This belief is based upon the belief that human nature is capable of no better mode of production.

(In fact capitalism, even when the serfs accept it as they would a law of nature, is manipulated by those who have power/capital or perhaps it is more accurate to say that this manipulation is itself part of the capitalist mode of production.)

"Socialism distributes wealth more equally..."

I read the work of Marx in my teens. It came across to me, at that time, as the answer to my questions concerning how best to incorporate the theology teachings being taught to me to work towards making the world a better place.

Then I studied the theology of others...I furthered my education...I entered the business world...I more or less turned my back on getting into a field of sociology. The over lapping time I think of my "Zen Capitalist" phase.

Somewhere along the line I read a couple of biographies on Marx...had a light bulb moment where it became clear that the man was not actually living the life of his socialist ideals, and it did appear that he could not truly relate to those he was speaking for. He knew the human nature of the people he most associated with -- he did not appear to understand that all of human nature is not created equal in the terms he defined.

After 30+ years of working in the accounting end of the business world in "THE" most capitalistic nation on earth, I am ending out my career working for a non-profit, community service organization, that is attempting to best use the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) aka stimulus funds to best help those the guidelines define.

My current conclusion..."Wealth should always be earned in such a manner that there is no need to have it forcefully distributed to people enmasse."

I'm not quite to the point where I can come up with a means by which to have those who made the business decisions pay for their choices without destroying the foundation of our economy from it current erroded point.

I've only recently accepted the idea of an unrestricted stockmarket being a very bad idea, hopefully I never look as sad as Allan Greenspan did when he admitted he too had come to that conclusion.

As Kenny has been attempting to explain, there will come a point when the realization that the U.S. dollar is beyond the point of having no value when everyone will have to discover for themselves the many sides of human nature.

I have no way of knowing if he realizes it will be painful for those who are at the extreme edge of Capitalism and those who are the extreme edge of Socialism.

My personal fear is that it will be more painful for those who choices have not allowed others to work for them, and to give to them to the point that they believe that is for the best, for they have a life time of practice at having less.

Lost1

That makes sense. There would be no need to redistribute wealth if there wasn't such a gap between the incomes of rich and the incomes of the poor in the first place. It eliminates the bureaucratic middle man and the inefficiencies associated with it. This is still socialism of course - it's a more advanced form of socialism than tax and redistribute.