Mr. Obama and Corvee Labor.

Let us start with a word from Karl A. Wittfogel from Chapter 2, Section F, Part 2, "The Power Of The Hydraulic State Over Labor Greater Than That Of Capitalist Enterprises" of "Oriental Despotism; A Comparative Study of Total Power":

"In both spheres the hydraulic state levied and controlled the needed labor forces by coercive methods...They compelled able-bodied commoners to work on them through the agency of the corvee.

Corvee Labor is forced labor. But unlike slave labor, which is demanded permanently, corvee labor is conscripted on a temporary, although recurring, basis. After the corvee labor is completed, the worker is expected to go home and continue his own business.

Thus the corvee laborer is freer than the slave. But he is less free than a wage laborer. He does not enjoy the bargaining advantages of the labor market, and this is the case even if the state gives him food...or some cash. In areas with a highly developed money economy the hydraulic government may levy a corvee tax and hire rather than conscript the needed labor. This was done largely in China at the close of the Ming dynasty and during the greater part of Ch'ing rule.

But there as elsewhere the government arbitrarily fixed the wage. And it always kept the workers under quasimilitary discipline." - pp. 47-48 of "Oriental Despotism; A Comparative Study of Total Power by Kurt A. Wittfogel, (New Haven and London:Yale University Press, 1957). (Emphasis mine!)

Now, having taken the time to read and digest that, let us look at the "National Volunteer Act" that Mr. Obama and his fellow Democrats have espoused since the mid-1990s when in some locales they passed what they themselves at the time so charmingly named "Compulsory Volunteering"...

"Specifically, Obama’s national service plan addresses foreign and domestic issues....Under the plan, all middle and high school students would be required to do 50 hours of community service...".


Because, of course, Democrats and other leftists just know the world would come to an end if blameless students leading blameless lives were allowed to decide to do homework or play video games instead of working on a corvee labor gang to the whims of a leftist Chicago wardheeler, no doubt! :P

Isn't it interesting that Mr. Obama and his toadies would wish to remake America in the image of feudal China? o_O

Mind you, those beyond high school age would do well not to be too smug about this: When the modern income tax was first instituted it was limited only to those who made more than $50,000 a year. The modern taxpayer will doubtless note that such limits have fallen by the wayside. Who can doubt that such gradualist measures were the way corvee labor was first imposed in the various hydrualic states as well? And yet, the end of this was that those who consented to such things, whether for others or for themselves, ended by finding that they had become the property of the state. ^_^;

With this in mind, it deserves to be be remembered that a vote for Mr. Obama or any other Democrat is a vote to make yourself property. Property of the state but property all the same. I would suggest voting the other way instead! But then you knew that already, didn't you? ^_~


Mood Music: Chain Gang by Sam Cooke and Charles Cooke, as sung by Sam Cooke.