Exactly. As slave as them.
replyNot an apt metaphor because we can just walk away and never see our employers again if that’s our free will.
replyI know we're getting deep in the meta discussion but the free will that you're describing involves basically starving to death. Sure, you can walk away but unless you're well off, we all basically live in the same society that makes sure you are ALWAYS dependent on some kind of wage. You cannot live off the land, build housing, or eat food without some kind of income in the modern world. And thus the concept of wage slave.
replyBut wage slavery, while bad, isn't slavery still. In slavery proper, the option of walking away straight up doesn't exist. In fact, in extreme cases, even the option of dying might not be available.
replyIt is slavery. Chattel slavery is much more severe than what we normally consider slavery. Yet “slavery” and chattel slavery are both still slavery. The reason what you’re saying is so accepted is because we are currently living under a universal liberal world order that says wage slavery id freedom.
replyI hope you notice I didn't mention chattel slavery. Even prior to it, all forms of slavery were about removing the agency of person and subjugating the will of the slave to the owner. That requires an active action.
Not hiring someone is a passive action. As said by many, you are not entitled to a wage. In fact, suggesting otherwise would actually require slavery. Wage slavery, instead, is a description of a particular material condition of destitution, not necessarily connected to the ethical evaluation to proper slavery.
No one says "wage slavery is freedom". What the "universal liberal world", that is, the pro-free market side says is that people should be free to associate with each other as they see fit. Being hired to provide labor in exchange for wage, the basis for wage work, is merely an extension of this. While wage work is a requirement for wage slavery, at no point economic liberals said that everyone should live under wage slavery conditions.
replyThis is indeed what I often tell people. We don’t need to treat chattel slavery as anything special that requires reparations or any specific social rules around. We are all slaves, and my life is really quite as hard as the slaves in pre-Emancipation America. People make such a big deal about life was hard for them but they’ve never tried to pay AMT so they can’t relate to how hard life is for people like me.
replyYou’ll lose your health insurance
replySounds like having a w2 is a pretty good deal for you then.
replySlavery isn’t defined by “I don’t want to talk away because the deal is too good”, it’s more like “I’m unable to walk away because I’m threatened with force if I do so”
I moved to Canada instead of tying myself to a w2
replyThis is one of those reasons I never took slave rebellions seriously. Instead of dying like that in the dirt why not just move to Canada?
replyMy dad used to refer to that as the golden handcuffs when he worked for GE. Wouldn't compare it to slavery though, he just felt trapped there because nobody else would pay him that well or give him as good of benefits
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