Freedom or Slavery

Try not paying federal income tax and see how free you are.

 

In 1776, I would have extremely little autonomy. I certainly would not have full citizenship. No right to vote and my legal testimony would mean little against that of a man.

A man and wife were one person and that person was him. My property would belong to him. He could sign any legal papers on my behalf whether I liked it or not. He would control where I lived, how I lived and - to an uncomfortable extent - if I lived.

If he died, I would get some autonomy back, but I would still be Mrs. Him. I would be hard put to earn any sort of living as most profitable occupations were reserved for men only. Employment was totaly "at will" then and employers were allowed to beat their employees. Women employees were particularly vulnerable to the whims of their employers and the gossip of the workplace.

As a landlady, though, I would be in a better position than most unprotected widows. Whether I would retain my wealth would depend a great deal on the reliability of my banker (no federal insurance in those days) and my lawyer.

 

Ahh, the good old days.:smilewinkgrin:

 

People think they are free because they can select which politician will screw them for the next 2, 4, or 6 years. Both parties are owned by the same companies and millionairs. Doesn't matter who is elected because nothing important changes. No election has ever slowed the transfer of assets from the working class to our owners. Not even the Great Depression. The sinking rich came out of the Depression even richer just as they do in each war.

You all hear that 260 tons of $100 bills were shipped to Iraq?

 

There is a famous Dicken's quotation as to that legal assumption. "If the law assumes that, the law is an @@@".

If by "be responsible" you mean "dictate and utterly control" then no.

That is a totally different question than the originals:

1. Are we exempt from the power or control of another or is there an entity or entities that has the ability to control some, much or all of the elements of our lives?
2. Can a U.S. Citizen of the year 2007 retain his wealth and property in the same fashion of a U.S. citizen in 1776?

1. Women were not exempt from control of another. Her husband, father, brother had varying degrees of control of her life.

2. Women can far better retain their wealth and property than they could in 1776.

It's very similar to the fundamentalist Islamic family style. Families come in all different models, colors, shapes and sizes - I prefer the one where the wife is a person in her own right. So does Mr. Daisy

 

This is from my forum I oversee and thought it might be along some same lines here.


Also side note:americans are in bondage to many things; entertainment, finances, pleasure...I would to God that the only bondage I am ever in is to Christ...the good Taskmaster!

 

Freedom is a relative term. Actually everyone has to submit to authority of some sort, unless they live alone on an island, and then they would answer only to God.

There were, and are, places in the world where punishments are administered by a religious police force, including amputation of one hand for theft and stoning for adultery. There are places where television, music and sports are banned, and men are required to keep their beards at a certain length, and where women must be completely covered when in public. There are places where a 16 year-old-girl can be hung for immodest behavior. There were, and still are, places where people are removed from their homes and forced to work on collective farms.

So yes, relatively speaking, we are very free.