Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita

While the first arcs are great. And I mean really great, the Slave/Island arc mostly sucks.

But it does bring some interesting comments that either miss the point or they don’t know enough background.

> Chapter 55, anonymous
> countries that dont publicly approve of slavery instead use subtler methods, called indentured servitude via manipulation of laws and court system, or even subtler, debt slavery via having people being born into debt

Or not so subtle. Ever heard of taxes? Especially property tax? Or sales tax on food? Income tax?

People in first world countries don’t ‘own’ anything, they ‘rent’ their lives from their governments.

Fun fact 1, the US Social Security Payroll Tax taxes the poor the most. It’s stops taxing at roughly $150,000. The current tax rate for social security is 6.2% for the employer and 6.2% for the employee, or 12.4% total. You literally lose 6.2% of your pay without even knowing it was yours.

Fun fact 2, the US has tons of hidden taxes and taxes on taxes. Cell phones’ hidden tax varies between 22% and 32% of your monthly bill. It is not alone, any bill from a government entity with a ‘base fee’ (electric, water, car, gas, etc.) is the same. Gasoline has a tax of roughly 40 cents per gallon (fed/state) with the gasoline company (think Exxon) receiving billions in taxpayer subsidies, making it have both a ‘hidden’ tax and a tax on tax. These types of taxes are taxes that tax the ‘lesser people’ the most.

Fun fact 3, the US total tax load for anyone under 50,000, once all hidden taxes and taxes on taxes are added up, is roughly 60-90% of gross income.

The Romans coined a term for this, “Bread and Circus.”

Personally I’m just powering though the Slave/Island arc, as hopefully it’ll return to decent world building and writing.