Is Politics Insoluble?

From Spencer's 1884 to Orwell's 1984 I 103
iar with the attainment of desired ends by individual
actions or private agencies; until, eventually, govern-
mental agencies come to be thought of as the only
available agencies.
Forms of Slavery
"All socialism," Spencer concludes, "involves slavery. . . .
That which fundamentally distinguishes the slave is that he
labors under coercion to satisfy another's desires." The rela-
tion admits of many gradations. Oppressive taxation is a form
of slavery of the individual to the community as a whole. "The
essential question is—How much is he compelled to labor for
other benefit than his own, and how much can he labor for his
own benefit?"
Even Spencer would probably have regarded with
incredulity a prediction that in less than two generations Eng-
land would have rates of income tax rising above 90 percent,
and that many an energetic and ambitious man, in England
and the United States, would be forced to spend more than
half his time and labor working for the support of the commu-
nity, and allowed less than half his time and labor to provide
for his family and himself.
Today's progressive income tax provides a quantitative
measurement of the relative extent of a man's economic lib-
erty and servitude.
Those who think that public housing is an entirely new
development will be startled to hear that the beginnings of
it—as well as some of its harmful consequences—were
already present in 1884:
Where municipal bodies turn housebuilders [wrote
Spencer], they inevitably lower the values of houses