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News reports tell us that 62,000 jobs, in the United States, were lost in June, 2008. These reports also
tell us that, so far this year, 438,000 jobs have been lost in the United States. News reports also tell us
that the average salary of the top CEOs, in the United States, is about $8½ million. News reports also
tell us that, in the 13 metro-Atlanta (Georgia) county region, about 7300 homes are in the process of
foreclosure.

There are those who demand evidence for what others believe; there are others who offer evidence for what
they believe. Evidence is always in the vision of the beholder; it is always in the view of the believer. There
is a German proverb: "Whatever one likes to see one likes to believe." It was Francis Bacon who wrote that
belief is "what a man had rather were true".

When it comes to a defensive war, every citizen has a moral duty to fight for his or her community, his
or her country.

If a nation needs to defend itself from a real enemy, and if there are not enough volunteers, then a draft would
be both necessary and appropriate, and the draft must be equitable.

It is the moral duty of every citizen to defend his or her community, his or her country, from the aggressive
and hostile assaults of any and every belligerent enemy.

If there are enough volunteers, then a draft will not be necessary. But, it must be remembered that a defensive
war could last for some time, and that the deaths of volunteers could eventuate in a shortage of volunteers. If
a democracy has any free-rider problems -- as is often claimed by anti-democrats -- then democracy's free-rider
problems are not a problem that is unique to democracy. The free-rider problem is a problem that capitalism
also has. Because of human nature, there has always been, and there will always be a free-rider problem. It is
no valid argument against democracy to use the free-rider problem, unless capitalism can be shown to have no
free-rider problem. If both capitalism and democracy have the same free-rider problem, then the free-rider
problem cannot rightly be used as evidence against either the one or the other organization of society.

If the free-rider problem means that there will be a shortage of volunteers, then it may be necessary for a draft
to be instituted. If there are cowards, then these also have a duty to fight for the defense of their community.
War is a very serious business; emergency measures often demand martial steps. In ancient Rome, a temporary
dictator was a magistrate invested with emergency powers, during a military crisis, for a period of six months.
The dictator's power was neither arbitrary nor unaccountable. The dictator's power was subject to law, and
always required retrospective justification. Even in ancient Greece, supreme powers were sometimes given to
individuals when a city-state was threatened, for example, Solon in 594-93 B.C.

A draft is not what democracy is about, just as a dictator is not what democracy is about; but, if and when
these two practices are needed, they must and will be briefly put into use in order to defend and preserve a
social-democratic republic.

The democratic principles of equality and justice mean that every person must do his or her duty for the
common good of their community, for the general welfare of their nation.

If democracy is a kind of slavery -- as some anti-democrats allege -- then what does it do to slavery if all
citizens are equally the slaves of their community? What kind of slavery would we have when every citizen
is a slave? I believe that it is a category-mistake to call duty and obligation to one's community a kind of
"slavery". Freedom without fealty to one's community will not endure; liberty without liability to one's
nation cannot be sustained. Wherever there are free and full citizens of a republic, there is the debt and the
duty to their community which every citizen acknowledges and accepts. To own is always to owe. To
own a citizen's liberty is to own a citizen's liability. To own a citizen's freedom is to owe fealty to one's
community.

Politicians, in these United States, learned from the Vietnam War not to have a draft, especially if and when
the war is optional, controversial or unjustified. The current war in Iraq was an elective war, a discretionary
war, in the beginning; and there has been no draft. However, the war in Iraq may have become an obligatory
war because we initiated it. A war that was, at first, unnecessary has, perhaps, become an obligatory war.
What was never an inevitable war has, perhaps, metamorphosed into an inescapable war.

If a theoretical democratic-socialist commonwealth would have a free-rider problem, because of human
nature, then I assume and suppose that a hypothetical libertarian-capitalist republic will also have a free-
rider problem. With every right and liberty comes certain duties and responsibilities.

If there is no free-rider problem, fine!  If there is no free-rider problem, then there is no need to, for example,
tax the citizens of a commonwealth. If there is no free-rider problem, then every citizen will freely and gladly
donate either funds or labor to the community, or to the republic. But, if there is a free-rider problem, then it
is very obvious that a legal and enforceable tax will be required, and every educated citizen will be well aware
of the need to legislate and to impose a tax on every citizen.

I advocate a social-anarchist arrangement. I do not advocate an authoritarian state; I do not advocate a
democratic state. I advocate social-anarchism; I advocate a democratic model of anarchism. In such a
system, "from each according to ability" is the rule; and, each citizen will be required to contribute value-
creating labor to the community's common wealth. There will be no taxes as we know taxes today, just as
there will be no government as we know government today; but, there will be a form of taxation that will
be modified by, transformed by, and attuned to a democratic and anarcho-socialist arrangement. There will
be voluntary contributions to the common wealth; but, if there is a severe/serious free-rider problem, then
it is likely that a commonwealth republic will need to institute a kind of obligatory and mandatory form of
levy or duty. If every human society will and must inevitably have a free-rider problem, then every human
society -- even an anarchist one -- will necessarily have to establish some form of compulsory input from
every citizen. A free-rider problem does not invalidate a citizen's duties to his or her community. But, I
believe that "to each according to need" will have a very positive effect on every citizens' sense of duty.
People often do not like paying taxes because of a fear of possible future shortages, or of financial shortfalls.
When chronic poverty is abolished -- if we can abolish chronic poverty -- and when every citizen is
guaranteed a social safety-net, or a consistent supply of what they need, then it will be less of a burden for
citizens to freely contribute labor and value to the community's common wealth. When the duty to contribute
as able is attended by a right to receive as needed, then the duty will no longer be an oppressive imposition.

"Karl Marx has made himself at home, after his death, in the circles of official science, at least as an adversary
who will stand no fooling."
-- Antonio Labriola

We already have the knowledge and the technology to escape subsistence and slavery; but, capitalism cannot
preside over such a leap to such a new and fair beginning, to such a good and just future. Capitalism will
never be able to conduct, regulate, or govern a movement from existing statism and slavery, to a future
realization of anarchist liberty and of socialist democracy.

The rich and the useless are always afraid of the future. The makers do not fear liberty, equality and
community; it is the takers who fear these democratic ideas and libertarian ideals.

We fear death more than we fear the future. My death is my future, only my future. Your death is your
future, only your future.  When death comes to an individual, there is no more future for that individual.
I do not fear the future, because I know I will not be there. The only future one fears is one's own future,
which is one's own death, which is the end and the close of the individual's future. The rich and the useless
fear death, just like everyone else. The unproductive rich fear the future, fear death, just like everyone
else.  All their wealth cannot stop their fear of death, cannot extend their life, and cannot lengthen their
future.

Fear of the future is an irrational fear; fear of death is an irrefutable fear. Fear of the future is always an
irrelevant fear; but, fear of death is always an irresistible fear. Fear of the future is irrational and irrelevant
for the same reason -- the fearful individual will not be there, will not live until then. And yet, no matter
how irrational and irrelevant the fear, the fear remains irresistible and irrefutable.

The wealthy are doing what human nature demands of them in a context of competition and capitalism.
Intelligent socialists look upon the capitalists as both virtuous and criminal, both innocent and corrupt,
both honest and dishonest, both blameless and blameworthy. Every enlightened, educated socialist wants
to be there to actively engage in participatory democracy, to energetically witness the creation and the
constitution of a libertarian commonwealth republic. We want predatory and profiteering capitalism to be
abolished; we do not want the capitalists to be executed, or the wealthy to be exterminated. When capitalism
is abolished, there will be no more capitalists, there will only be former capitalists, reformed and rehabilitated.
There are capitalists who admire and advocate democratic socialism. There are de facto capitalists who are
not ideological capitalists.

The modern state exists in order to preserve a static reality, in order to postpone a better future, a finer
freedom.

Every human being is selfish, naturally and normally selfish, intuitively and instinctively selfish. But,
every human being is also selfless, naturally and normally selfless, intuitively and instinctively selfless.
In an environment that encourages and promotes selfishness, it is no wonder that our selfish nature becomes
the more dominant expression of our natural constitution. We adapt our behavior to accommodate the ruling
social reality. We adjust our habits to get used to the prevailing political and economic realities. But, we are
both selfish and selfless beings, both solitary and sociable beings; and, it is because we are both sides that we
are neither one side nor the other side alone. It is because we are both aspects that we are free to be either one
or the other. We are never only one side; but we are always free to synthesize these two aspects of our nature
in a very unique and very individual manner.

In capitalism, resources are kept scarce. When we invest in weapons technologies, rather than in medical
technologies, then we make the medical technologies scarce. It is the law of supply-and-demand. If we keep
down the supply of medical equipment, then we keep up the demand, and this serves to keep the production
of medical equipment more profitable. In capitalism, we educate less medical doctors, thereby keeping down
the supply of medical doctors, thereby keeping up the income earnings of medical doctors. Capitalism always
misdirects resources in order to maximize profits.

"Covetousness, no less than murder or adultery, strikes at the framework of society."
-- Anonymous

"There never can be rights, but duties only."
-- Anonymous