Let’s say you’re a slave master in what most people understand as the historical stereotype of slavery, what does that entail?
- You own people as property;
- They have no rights;
- You can do anything you want to them;
- The expenses of keeping them alive and fit to work are your expenses;
— so how is this any different from capitalism, if the only difference is that you give them that money so they can pay those expenses themselves? Ok, there’s a few more differences than that, but it’s still slavery.
In a socialist democracy under capitalist economics, sure you can vote, and if your job pays well enough you can go on holidays and buy other treats for yourself, but I never said that EVERYONE was a slave under capitalism, I only said that capitalism is the normalisation of slavery.
It is true that some people live a reasonably good life under capitalism, but this is completely irrelevant in determining whether or not slavery is normalised under capitalism. To argue otherwise is to say that a pedophile who loves his mother is a good person who doesn’t abuse children. We all have our biases, but if you’re willing to excuse capitalism for the crime of enslaving one person just because it’s no one you particularly care about, then your opinion on the subject is too biased to be relevant or valid to the discussion.
Have you ever washed dishes as your only source of income AND had to pay rent and bills? How about street sweeping, fruit picking, cleaning cars, or one of the countless other jobs that pays sweet fuck all in wages? I have, I’ve done all of those jobs, more than 100 jobs in my lifetime so far, and less than half a dozen of them paid a decent living wage.
When you’re on ( and have always been on ) an average income or lower, with perhaps unreliability of such income, and no other backup, here’s what I guarantee you’ll experience unless you’re extremely lucky:
- The desperation of your circumstances will cause you to make more frequent mistakes;
- Your circumstances will cause an increased frequency of misfortunate that costs you resources and opportunity;
- You won’t be able to handle all this misfortune, and your life will be increasingly uncomfortable;
- You’ll go into debt in a desperate attempt to escape that cycle;
- Unhandled problems will build up on top of each other, and cause new misfortune;
— and eventually, without some means of escape, you’ll be stuck.
What else is this if not slavery?
Can you escape? Maybe, if you’re lucky.
Are you trapped against your will? Yes.
Are you afforded the economic opportunity to escape? No.
Can others demand you do as they say in exchange for the resources to keep you alive? Yes.
Do they give you those resources AND the additional resources to escape? No.
Can you refuse? Only if homelessness, poverty, and possible death are ok with you ( ie: no you can’t refuse ).
Do those born into extreme or at least secure wealth and/or opportunity have to go through this? No.
This is just the normalisation of slavery with limited options to make it appear as if it isn’t slavery.