Wage Slavery Revisited

A response to ProprietorOfSelf and further explanation of wage slavery.

An excellent article on wage slavery:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery

The Voice of Industry:

http://library.uml.edu/clh/All/Voice.htm

Excerpts from "A Living Wage"

http://books.google.com/books?id=uaZeBhl2QLYC&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq...

A Communist Critique of the Wage System:

http://www.plp.org/pamphlets/politecon.html#SECTION%20III

An online version of Das Kapital:

http://www.cpm.ll.ehime-u.ac.jp/AkamacHomePage/Akamac_E-text/Materials/akmc.pdf

And while we're at it, how about a link to Emma Goldman's essay, "Anarchism: What it really stands for:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/Goldman/anarchism.html

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• wage
• slave
• wages
• capitalism
• labor
• history
• Noam
• Chomsky

[mlkovach01]

Wow. It must be easy to win debates by simply dismissing everything contrary as "vulgar propaganda."

Physical labor alone does not create wealth or value. Value is the product of man's mind. Only when innovative minds put natural resources to productive use and invent new technologies is real economic value created.

The concept of wage slavery is much closer to propaganda. It incites class struggle and inhibits true progress, all for the sake of making everyone equal in slavery.

[buddhagem]

Sorry but it gets old having to explain things to people like you who have no historical context in which to view this debate. Far from propganda "wage slavery" is how Americans saw the rising wage system from the workers to the politicians. Check out lincolns platform on wage slavery. That you don't know this is just testament to the indoctrination system in this country

[Garboth]

When the said quoted persons in the video say 19th century wage laborers don't they mean people working in terrible conditions in factories for long hours and very little money? Of course that is wrong, but there is a big difference between a child getting paid barely anything working in a dangerous and unsanitary factory than a 16 year old stocking shelves at Safeway for $8 an hour.

[toothclaw18]

i just made almost 7k in my first six months of truck driving. hard job, been to west coast and east coast, florida, illinois.you name it.have no savings and during all this time was very close to losing my apartment.some weeks making as little as 100 to 200 bucks.lost my health insurance,didnt make enough to pay for it, they cancelled it quickly.I made lots of money that just made its way to other peoples pocket. millions of people to be exploited out there fighting among each other for crumbs

[SUpersaiyajinjerkbag]

@MugsMcClain

I disagree; it is actually the capitalist mansion that requires fifty janitors

[SUpersaiyajinjerkbag]

True. People work at mcdonalds because their families made them or because our schools are overpriced or because even social workers don't want to give jobs away.

Still, this does not make me believe in wage slavery. More like "establishment slavery". The USA is just a dungeon without a dicator. Like the Shah regime of Iran; the USA does however have a floor on certain kinds of sexism

[gulbirk]

It must be possible to have a world in which the working class is payd for, and are not slaves.

For only 100 years ago (at least in Europe) working class people were more or less slaves. You had to work, and you didnt get very much. Then we, the west (through unions and government rules) actually managed to create some rights for the workers. And then, all the work was shipped to third world countries. And now, people are arguing to go back to what we had 100 years ago. wtf.

[Buddhabytes]

The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don't care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve - Tom morrello.

[Buddhabytes]

The so called free world touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you've lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn't belong to you.

[okayillgonow]

Hey Buddhagem what was that speech by Noam Chomsky about Labor? I want to find it on Youtube.

[MugsMcClain]

(cont) Anyway, that's the problem I see with capitalism. Misery of life is not shared; it is imposed on new arrivals.

I'm no economic theorist, though, and I only did 2 years of college, so don't rake me over the coals.

[MugsMcClain]

(cont) This is why, at least in America, a capitalist society will have to rely on one thing to keep itself afloat: mass immigration of new workers to do those lowly jobs. Italians, Irish, Jewish, now Mexicans, Pakistani, etc. People whose families have been here many years will no longer share the misery of undesirable jobs, so they must import...well, I won't call them slaves, but you get the picture. (cont)