A slave is tta person who is owned by another person and works for them for no money. In this literal sense, we could say that it is improbable to find slaves in these days. But in other sense, we can find slavery everywhere. That is, slavery takes another meaning.

Sometimes, we are slaves to multimedia and information. The risk of information overload could affect us.

At times, we are slaves to fashion. If you want to be in, we must wear fashionable clothes. If you didn’t do that, you would be out. We often waste our money on things we don’t really need. Now again, we could be slaves to conspicuous consumption.

We are usually slaves to government. This latest sentence needs to detain us.

It is said that there is a social contract between the government and the population of a country. People must pay taxes. This sum of money is paid by people or businesses to a government for public purposes. They must obey rules because it would be impossible to live in a country without rules. That is ok, but what happens when people disobey the rules. For example, there are murderers, robbers, thieves and rapists everywhere. It would be reasonable that government do something with crime. Is it possible that criminals are out of prison? So, we are slaves again. Citizens have no protection. The government should offer security in its country. Is it possible that children can die of hunger? Everyday, 29000 people die of hunger in the world. Is it possible that in 21st century there are people that don’t know to read and write? What chances do they have to find a dignified job?

But we could say more about this subject…Sometimes we are slaves to drugs (alcohol, tabacco and so on). We are slaves to severe diets because we want to have a slim figure. We are also slaves to duty and convention. There are social customs that we must obey. If we intent to escape from these social rules, we could be isolated.

In Argentina

In my country, Argentina, we are 38 million people approximately. There are a lot of high different taxes in my country. So, at least, the government ought to offer security, health and education. Let’s think about this. Each person that works must pay an important part of his o her salary for his/her retirement. So, approximately, the 16 percent of our salary is taxed at source. Besides, all firms must pay a similar amount to the government for having employees.

But, people must pay another taxes. For example, when we buy something, we must pay a 21 per cent increase in price or when we make a telephone call, we must pay a 27 per cent increase in price. Besides, if we have a house or a car, we will have to pay taxes.

It is important to say that if we earn more than $4,200 we must pay another tax. In Argentina, it is called “Ganancias”. So, we could say that taxes are part of our lives.

It would be very complex to explain what happens with firms. They must pay a lot of taxes. There are municipal taxes, provincial taxes and Federal taxes. That is why, our country is a federal republic. So Municipalities need money, Provinces need it and the Federal Government needs money, too.

The problem is that the firms are unique and they are overtaxed.

It is said that when there are so high taxes in a country, it is common tax evasion. That is, people or firms try to avoid to pay taxes illegally, that is outside the law. Usually, accountants try to elude taxes. This is legal. When we elude taxes, we try to escape taxes but within the law.

By means of this explanation, I want to say that the Government obtains a great amount of money. However, sometimes, the public purposes are not got. So we could say that we are slaves again.

Freedom

Well, the question is what freedom is. We don’t enjoy complete freedom to do what we wish. In what way, are we free?

Are we free to say what we want? Are we free to love? Are we free to live according to our principles?

Perhaps, my own answers to these questions are different from yours. But I think, it is important that we ask ourselves about this subject.