Slavery, So Long As It's Nice

Slavery often calls to mind intolerable physical and economic conditions. And while those enslaved are often also impoverished, the two are not synonymous. For the former refers to a lack of freedom, an inability to change one's circumstances. Such circumstances could be good, but they are not required to be thus. Slaves are destitute because it is easier to withold things from those who lack power, but slaves could be, from an economic standpoint, fairly well off. See Brave New World for instance.

Now, I will not suggest that Americans are fully enslaved, though it seems that we are losing freedoms rather quickly and tending toward that way. Moreover, people prefer slavery so long as it is comfortable. On this point, the reduction in gasoline prices sees a boost in Bush's poll numbers.

Some Americans are suspicious that recent steep declines in gasoline prices might be the result of political manipulation, since the savings at the gas pump come just weeks before critical midterm US elections...

Manipulated or not, many observers agree that the falling prices at the gas pump have lifted Bush's sagging poll numbers.

"It pumps up presidential popularity," said Larry Sabato, a political analyst at the University of Virginia.

And while many experts believe that the recent rebound enjoyed by Bush in the polls is a result of a new thrust on security, others say it is mostly about the newly discounted gas.

I'm an American, happy as can be,
This way I'll remain this way, so long as I am "free";
If gas prices are cheap,
This Congress we should keep,
American, I, no else concerneth me.