Forum Post: Slavery Lives!

All successful civilizations have used slavery in one form or another to perpetuate an elite class over the less fortunate. Organized slavery dates back at least as far as the Sumerians and includes all of the “Great” civilizations. Ancient Egypt, Greece, China and Rome all reaped financial benefits on the backs of slave labor. It spurred the growth of the European powers as well as the United States.

If you thought slavery was abolished in America with the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 or the 13th Amendment of 1865, you would only be half right. While the concept of a person being the property of another was eliminated, the concept of slave labor continues and is stronger than ever.

Today’s slaves are the 99%. They aren’t physically shackled, but they remain fettered by socio-economic bonds that are strapped on at birth and tighten with age. Few find the means to extricate themselves from this bondage leaving the rest to toil endlessly at the hands of the one percent.

The “classic” slave owner benefited from free labor, but this labor wasn’t completely without cost. Food, clothing and shelter still needed to be provided to keep the slaves healthy enough to work. While these basic necessities were once provided by the “owner”, the onus has shifted to the “modern slave” to provide it themselves. Slaves are no longer the property of an individual, but a large pool of them exists that can be swapped, replaced or released on a whim in exchange for a nominal fee and without burden to the owner.

The fear of unemployment, whether to a fellow countryman or a foreigner willing to work for less pay, keeps the modern slave quiet and complacent. Without a constant pool of the unemployed, the employed would start to feel confident in their positions. The modern slave owner can never allow that to happen.

What really defines the modern slave is the indoctrination to the “American Dream” that is forced down the throats and into the minds of the citizenry. Grow up, go to school, get an education, become a professional, find a good paying job, marry a trophy spouse, save your pennies, buy a house, buy a new car every 5 years, buy some gadgets, buy some more gadgets, buy, buy, buy. Don’t get sick. Retire and then die.

Ideally, the salve owner’s efforts are geared to have its slaves acquire a large degree of debt before they ever obtain their first paying job, though soon thereafter is also acceptable. This is usually accomplished through education costs, credit cards or mortgages.

A slave in debt is a slave indeed. Critically, the majority of modern slaves must be prohibited by the slave owners from ever amassing enough cash reserves to bypass the “system”. If enough of them were able to attain financial security, the pool of slave labor would no longer exist.

From the end of the Great Depression through the mid-90s was a prosperous time for the middle class. The wealth they accumulated did not go unnoticed by the one-percenters. Hence, the campaign to fleece or otherwise alleviate the burden of financial stability from the middle class was begun.

I would like to point out that I am a business owner and not against capitalism, but I am against predatory profits. I believe there can exist a balance between the bottom line and the food line. If the corporate world must reduce its profits from (arbitrarily) 30% to 20% annually so that the rest of the world can be fed, housed, clothed and educated, then so be it – after all, it’s the Christian / Hindu / Buddhist / Jewish / Muslim / right thing to do.