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"Wage slave" is an anti-concept used by individuals to rationalize their belief that coercive slavery can be morally legitimate. In order to do so, they must co

"Wage slave" is an anti-concept used by individuals to rationalize their belief that coercive slavery can be morally legitimate. In order to do so, they must conflate voluntary impositions on freedom (doing what your boss says to obtain their property) with coercive impositions on freedom (doing what your owner says to avoid violence). At the start of the industrial revolution, the term was used by plantation owners in the South to attack factory owners in the North.

ahoyhere 15y ago
IMO the "slave" aspect comes from the cycle you get stuck in, rather than the fact that somebody gets to tell you what to do. As Felix Dennis (*megarich entrepreneur) says, "A regular paycheck is like crack." It's easy to become a slave to something that is, overall, so easy and comfortable and the default that everyone falls into & recommends & supports & views as normal.
- davidhollander 15y ago
  > A regular paycheck is like crack. > the cycle you get stuck in Is a behavior being "self-reinforcing" or "addictive" a sufficient definition that allows us to distinguish between things considered slavery, and things not considered slavery? Should screenwriters of dramatic television employing cliff hangers, alcohol brewers, and coffee shop owners, be considered slave-holders? Would you hold that waking at a set hour of the day, and sleeping at a set hour of the day constitutes slavery, due to its cyclic nature? What term would you use to describe situations involving claims of ownership over the production of others coerced to produce against their will under threat of violence or legal sanction?
_delirium 15y ago
Do you have evidence for that origin? As far as I'm able to find, the term originated among socialists in either the UK or the Northeastern United States, who were against both wage-slavery and the regular kind of slavery. I can't find any evidence that it was coined in the Southern U.S. by supporters of slavery, but sources admittedly seem a bit spotty (and I can believe that they would've used it for their ends if convenient).
- davidhollander 15y ago
  The argument was invoked by John C Calhoun, Thomas Roderick Dew, and George Fitzugh in the beginning of the 19th century in their defenses of slavery. Additionally, any form of socialism advocating for the abolishment of capitalism through political organization rather than voluntary abandonment also presupposes that one can legitimately claim ownership over the output and life of another through use of force.

ahoyhere 15y ago

IMO the "slave" aspect comes from the cycle you get stuck in, rather than the fact that somebody gets to tell you what to do. As Felix Dennis (*megarich entrepreneur) says, "A regular paycheck is like crack." It's easy to become a slave to something that is, overall, so easy and comfortable and the default that everyone falls into & recommends & supports & views as normal.

davidhollander 15y ago
> A regular paycheck is like crack. > the cycle you get stuck in Is a behavior being "self-reinforcing" or "addictive" a sufficient definition that allows us to distinguish between things considered slavery, and things not considered slavery? Should screenwriters of dramatic television employing cliff hangers, alcohol brewers, and coffee shop owners, be considered slave-holders? Would you hold that waking at a set hour of the day, and sleeping at a set hour of the day constitutes slavery, due to its cyclic nature? What term would you use to describe situations involving claims of ownership over the production of others coerced to produce against their will under threat of violence or legal sanction?

_delirium 15y ago

Do you have evidence for that origin? As far as I'm able to find, the term originated among socialists in either the UK or the Northeastern United States, who were against both wage-slavery and the regular kind of slavery. I can't find any evidence that it was coined in the Southern U.S. by supporters of slavery, but sources admittedly seem a bit spotty (and I can believe that they would've used it for their ends if convenient).

davidhollander 15y ago
The argument was invoked by John C Calhoun, Thomas Roderick Dew, and George Fitzugh in the beginning of the 19th century in their defenses of slavery. Additionally, any form of socialism advocating for the abolishment of capitalism through political organization rather than voluntary abandonment also presupposes that one can legitimately claim ownership over the output and life of another through use of force.