2005/03/13 - Jorge Valín - Libertad Digital

Exploited And Exploiters

If you are a salary worker and the company where you work pays you, for example, 1000 euros a month, 380 are immediately taken by the state. In other words, of the 1000 euros the company pays out, you only see 620.

A person is exploited when he has to work for someone else under abusive conditions and against his will. Unfortunately, the term is used in arbitrary and subjective ways; we are all exploited by our companies, families, friends, society… If are more objective, we can find an authentic definition for the word. We realize “exploited” only happens when we act against our will for fear of reprisals against our person or loved ones.  

For example, if we tire of a relationship we can break-up without fearing punishment. Perhaps personally it will be quite hard, but we have no reason to worry about our personal safety. The same thing happens with free private companies. A private company cannot really exploit us because whenever we want, we can leave for another one.

Free and voluntary acts can never be considered “exploitation”. Only slavery exploits us. We cannot leave our master because the consequences could mean death. Slavery and exploitation is to work against our will for another person under threat of physical violence. The state taxation is the best current example: if you refuse to pay taxes, government agents will come to pressure you to pay; if you defend yourself, the repercussions for you will be terrible.  

This week, the economic newspaper Expansión reported a story with a very suggestive title: “The State keeps 38% of what companies pay their employees”. If you are a salary worker and the company where you work pays you, for example, 1000 euros a month, 380 are immediately taken by the state. In other words, of the 1000 euros the company pays out, you only see 620.

Let us add that the tax bill doesn’t stop there. We need to include the numerous state, local and other taxes. For example, tax freedom day, an indicator measuring the total number of days you contribute to maintaining and fattening the state, in Spain is around the middle of May. This means, you are working for four and a half months exclusively for the state! The state forces you to work for free because we pay taxes without getting anything in exchange. Taxes, then, are a form of exploitation and slavery.

State technocrats would not say the same. They will avoid the matter saying taxes are economically neutral and “voluntary”. The money taken in by the state, they will say, is redistributed to create an equal, unified and better society. But even looking at it from this point of view, the truth could not be more different. If we penalize business and national and foreign investors with taxes we only manage to speed up outsourcing to other countries; if we penalize workers with higher tax rates we only manage to ensure the country produces less and increase the number of unemployed; and if we penalize consumers with more taxes, we only manage to raise prices, make the market more rigid and reduce choices for how to spend money. If we impose unity and equality through force we will be economically weaker, less free and more dependent on the state.