[Texas Federalist]

However the logic of the article would say any taxation is slavery--any "witholding of the fruit of your labor" is the same as involuntary servitude.

The logic is that income taxes are involuntary servitude - an idea that the Founders shared. Sales taxes or excise taxes were preferred because they could be avoided by simply saving your money. Also, sales taxes have a built in limiting mechanism because when they exceed 10%, revenues tend to decrease as black markets open and people find other ways to avoid the tax.

[AnalogReigns]

I just have trouble when freedom is primarily defined in economic, materialistic terms. Marxists and fascists are materialists too, just as was Ayn Rand. I dare say there are those countries on Heritage's list--probably Singapore, actually, or others--where religion and speech are regulated in ways we would find repugnant in the USA. If keeping everything you earn--or just paying sales taxes or the like, is the ultimate measure of freedom, than criminals here, or the elites of the 3rd world may rank as the world's most "free" accordingly. They aren't good company to keep and that's not my idea of freedom, nor I think the Founders idea--though surely modern America is far from the original ideal. It could be much (much) worse however.

Ranking economic freedom as number one may, in subtle ways, make things worse.