It happened again, just last week. I mentioned at lunch that I was a libertarian, and one of my lunch mates snorted and said, “What a hypocrite. I bet you drove here today on a public road, didn’t you?”

For some reason, a lot of folks think this is a knock-down argument against classical liberalism, because in their view we all just want to “free ride” (literally, in this case) by enjoying things paid for by others without contributing any of our own income as taxes.

Since we all run into this (dumb) argument all the time, I asked my usual question. I have worked to get it down to the fewest words possible, because it has more impact that way. My question is this: “If the slave eats the food provided by the master, does that mean the slave consents to slavery?”