it is not possible to control the mind of an individual if they do not want you to control their mind. therefore that person is free regardless of the government system they live under.

I disagree. Wouldn't humans have been much more free when very few other humans were around (thousands of years ago)?

Yup meddling like 20000+ statutes since 1789,
51 titles US code not counting "case law and regulatory provisions, and finally 74608 pages in the tax code as of 2014

20,000 statutes passed since 1789

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

"As for the United States Code, the Government Printing Office explains that “the United States Code is the codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. It is divided by broad subjects into 51 titles and published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives.” It is clear that the United States Code is a compilation of laws arranged by subject. However, similar to the Statutes at Large, it does not include case law or regulatory provisions."

http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2013/03/freq...

Number of pages in the federal tax code 74,608 as of 2014

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/loo...

We are ruled by the regulators. The real dark state.

While I agree that black slavery was horrible, it did not threaten to destroy the entire civilization by eliminating liberty, free markets, and private ownership of property. Today's statist meddling does exactly that.

Hello CG,
I think we had far more freedom prior to the 1900 and maybe up to the 1940's. To believe we have as much freedom as that time is wishful thinking. Consider all that was done, how little we were taxed, and the massive amount of achievements that happened in America during that time and I think you'll reconsider.

Not that much when you part of a society.

Just look at all the things you need permission to do before you can do them, or those things you pay a fee or tax to do and you'll clearly see the chains.

I do think we're as free as we have ever been. Your question about the future has me thinking. I don't know. It could go either way. It could keep getting better. Or some technology as destructive as the H-bomb but easier to get materials for could wipe out much of human kind. Or we could muddle along, being more comfortable but getting less free. I wish I could say the arc of history will bend toward liberty. I hope it does. We live in really good times now, but I think the future could break either way.

"Individual Rights seem to be at their lowest point since 1792. "
In certain aspects this is true, but in some ways things are a way better. You might be a slave, someone else's property, based just on how you look. You might be not allowed to travel, get a job, or keep what you earn. You might be conscripted into war. Your risk of being the victim of violent crime was higher. Your chance of being in a lawsuit was higher. Even educated people resolving their disputes through dueling was seen as acceptable. Physically beating children and even adult spouses was acceptable. Sexual assault was illegal, but acceptable theme for jokes and seen as possibly the victim's fault.

Even if you consider a narrow case and talked to the average person in the 18th century about light-skinned men of English origin and asked them about the concept of their right to control their life and what they make and freedom from obligations to "society", "God", the good of their extended family, I bet the average 21st Century American could better explain why her life is her own.

If I were in the 18th century world, even if it had all the modern conveniences like toilets and computers, and lived the life of a slave, I would risk the life of everyone in my family to get to the modern world where we're forced to pay a third of what I earn.

I agree cd. Individual Rights seem to be at their lowest point since 1792. What galls me to no end is that the evil ones who have seized control of our schools, our courts, our government are forcing us to pay for the chains that are enslaving us.

We not only have all of those in the US, they were written here. Yet individual freedom is diminishing and being conceded on campus, in the courts and in our Capital, Maybe we were like a tide and have to ebb.

There will always be people attracted to enforcing their wills over other people. These people are the worst of looters. I really don't see that going away ... ever.

Print up 7 billion copies of
1) Introduction To Objectivist Epistemology
2) Atlas Shrugged
3) Declaration of Independence
4) Bill of Rights
in all necessary languages and distribute..