“Money is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable from the old simply by the fact that it is impersonal -- that there is no human relation between master and slave.”

An excellent analogy - though there are those who treat both like family...

Whoever controls the issuance of money, controls everything.

The lack of money is the root of all evil.

In Tolstoi's day the worldwide gold standard served as a non-negotiable regulator of the worth of a nation's currency. It also served as an honest bellwether regarding the health of a currency-issuing nation's economy. Neither of these regulators remain in place, meaning the quote's significance enjoys much more relevance now than when first stated. Today's cash isn't "money" at all. It's created out of the ISSUANCE OF DEBT by central bankers. This means your cash is essentially nothing but a handful of IOUs from somebody else's poker game. Worse, every single time we unlimber plastic and hand it to the cashier in lieu of currency, we pay the same banksters a percentage off the top of every transaction - a charge for moving essentially worthless IOU 'totals' from one accounting column to another, electronically. Hardly a friendly teller, "merely" an armed 900-pound, compulsory 'spare change' beggar. It's at this point where your interest payments and privacy concerns begin, too. Politicians and the ubiquitous TV 'framer', all with their gun hands permanently affixed to financial sector genitalia, tell us it's a matter of "confidence." That's baloney. It's a confidence game. LIBOR manipulation makes that clearer than ever and it's only made possible by extreme levels of public ignorance (none worse than in the U.S.) and international gullibility. Look in the mirror; then remember again the last word found in this Tolstoi quote. It's quite true. Your barracoon has finer physical appointments and your overseers bear smiles and suits instead of whips. Oh, and unscalable mountains of debt YOU remain responsible. That's it.

Oh, and unscalable mountains of debt YOU remain responsible. That's it. -- Mann, Kalamazoo What about the people that run up debt ie;house, cars, etc... and then walk away without paying? That makes ALL citizens working and playing by the 'rules' responsible! Public assistance from Government is slavery. It is very hard to get off of it, because it pays more to remain on the welfare roles than working at a low paying job and trying to work your way up out of that hole.

Diana, Mann is correct here. Those helots, serfs and otherwise slaves (citizens) working and playing by the rules are equal to those people that run up debt i.e., house, car, etc. It is the system's rules that are flawed, all are players, working their part of the eventual full collapse. Another economic misconception is immigration. There is no Constitutional authority for the federal government to impose its anything on immigration; it is a State issue. In a free society of individual sovereigns with integrity and personal responsibility (lacking the socialist's religious dogmas), immigrant increase is an economic increase. It is when government schools, government medical, government magnification of the seemingly free dole, government ponzi schemes, a government welfare state, government controls (compelled compliance, license, etc.) vs. inalienable right protection, and mandated government funny money is put into place, economic slaves are created.