Self-ownership

“Self-ownership,” Monterey Herald – May 10, 2022

People do own their bodies, which deals with a host of liberties beyond just abortion. This self-ownership principle from John Locke means that all individuals have a constitutional right to keep whatever wealth they make. The anti-slavery 13th Amendment of 1865 banned “involuntary servitude,” which can include taxation as a form of body-stealing slavery.

The abolitionists referred to slavery as “man-stealing” because it deprived slaves of getting wages for their backbreaking labor on the plantations. In order words, people should not have their wages stolen; they should have a right to choose what to do with their bodies and assets.

Unfortunately, many Democrats still believe in involuntary servitude since they almost always seek to tax citizens to death. Do they really believe that everyone owns their body or not?

— Lawrence Samuels, Carmel