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No, you have not been a slave. Slaves did not have the option to stay at home and get fired. They were not getting paid. You just had a shitty job at a warehou
by VMG 14y ago
No, you have not been a slave. Slaves did not have the option to stay at home and get fired. They were not getting paid.
You just had a shitty job at a warehouse.
- nodata 14y agoIf you can stay at home and get in more debt, or work and have less debt (but still lose money month-on-month) does that make you a slave? Does it make you enslaved to your debt? What if the wage earns you only enough to live on? Some slaves were provided with sustenance and not much else. What's the difference?
- Variance 14y agoThe fact that you have to work in order to be able to live doesn't mean that you're a slave. You might as well say that "life is slavery". This is all quite insulting to the plights of people who were slaves throughout history, and those who still are slaves today. Please don't equate the first-world gripes of people who are unprecedentedly well-off to actual slavery.
- VMG 14y agoThis is why I criticize using the term "wage slave". People actually think the lives of people who literally didn't have any human rights and were bought and sold as property are comparable to people who work under poor conditions. The author mentions that she earned $60 a day after taxes.
- nodata 14y ago> This is why I criticize using the term "wage slave". But "slave" != "wage slave", as explained in the Wikipedia article linked above.
- azakai 14y ago> What if the wage earns you only enough to live on? Some slaves were provided with sustenance and not much else. What's the difference? Are you kidding? Slaves are owned, like property (in fact that is the definition of slavery). That's a huge difference.
- Dylan16807 14y agoI owe my soul to the company store.
- Tloewald 14y agoThe term "wage slave" is fairly well understood to not be literal. So your one line dismissal of this article (which has been posted before) is obtuse.
- marknutter 14y agoPerhaps the term "slave" shouldn't be used at all in this context. Unless that term is trying to be purposely inflammatory.
- masklinn 14y agoOr perhaps you should learn about the definition of the term "wage slave"?
- paulhauggis 14y agoSo you are saying they use the word "slave", but it has nothing to do with the literal meaning? If not, why not use another word?
- Natsu 14y agoIf we got upset over every non-literal use of a word, we wouldn't be able to use the word "literally" either[1]. [1]: http://xkcd.com/1108/ http://xkcd.com/1108/
- paulhauggis 14y agouhh..ok. So computer means sky now. Internet means cat. Didn't you know?
- Natsu 14y agoGay meant happy, queer was unusual, and liberal was generous. The 'computer' must be high and clear, no matter how far away it is.
- _delirium 14y agoThat's a pretty poor argument against the concept of "wage slavery", and I'm saying that as someone who is skeptical of the concept. You could educate yourself on the subject before publicly opining on it (it's best practice to first understand the best arguments in favor of a position before formulating a counterargument). Even just reading the Wikipedia article would be a good start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery
- bebebebe 14y agoYou obviously sit proud on a throne of smug. Try putting yourself in their shoes for a second. Your livelyhood can be taken away at a moments notice.
- nwmcsween 14y agoHow do you advance to something more with no time to learn anything new? With no money to gain transferable skills? Continuously working 10+ hour days with no chance for advancement, where your employer could care less about your well being just to make enough to survive is in my opinion slavery.