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Paying someone tiny amounts of money to do a boring job when they have other options available is not slavery. Slavery still exists today, mostly in the form of
by strken 3y ago
Paying someone tiny amounts of money to do a boring job when they have other options available is not slavery. Slavery still exists today, mostly in the form of phony debt bondage or entrapment of workers who are in a country illegally but sometimes as direct enslavement with no pretenses, and it does not look like sitting in front of a computer or on a phone training AI.
- farleykr 3y agoThe main figure in the article literally said their work felt like digital servitude [slavery] and implied they didn’t have other options.
- strken 3y agoThe main figure in the article is using hyperbole to show how exploitative he thinks the working conditions are. However, despite being exploited, he is not locked up in a dormitory and forced to work because his "employer" stole his passport, or anything like it. It's entirely possible that actual slaves are forced to do this work, but the conditions in the article aren't slavery.
- farleykr 3y agoNot taking the quote at face value and assuming it’s hyperbole is consistent with not thinking it’s actual slave labor. I’ll give ya that.
- strken 3y agoThere's no description of slavery or even ambiguous conditions. He was a poor Pakistani kid earning a pittance online to help his family, working from the family home, and able to leave for another employer. That sucks, and the companies should pay more, but they're exploiting terrible wages in poor areas rather than coercing their workers. The difference is important: we should avoid diluting the meaning of slavery, because slavery does exist and needs to be called out as effectively as possible.