Wage labor is a form of slavery that helps to maintain and perpetuate classism

I appreciate Con's stance as devil's advocate and also look forward to a balanced and thorough exchange. slave:noun http://dictionary.reference.com... 1. a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant. 2. a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person: a slave to a drug. 3. a drudge: a housekeeping slave. 6. Machinery. a mechanism under control of and repeating the actions of a similar mechanism. slavery:n. pl www.thefreedictionary.com/slavery 1. The condition in which one person is owned as property by another and is under the owner's control, especially in involuntary servitude. 2a. The practice of owning slaves. b. A mode of production in which slaves constitute the principal work force. 3. The condition of being subject or addicted to a specified influence. 4. A condition of hard work and subjection: wage slavery. slavery:noun http://www.merriam-webster.com... 1: drudgery, toil 2: submission to a dominating influence 3a : the state of a person who is a chattel of another b : the practice of slaveholding chattel slavery:(noun) http://sociologydictionary.org... Slavery in which one individual owns another individual. drudgery:noun http://dictionary.reference.com... 1. menial, distasteful, dull, or hard work. drudgery:noun http://www.vocabulary.com... If you"ve ever had to do the laundry, wash the dishes, make the meals, change the bedding, vacuum the house, and clean the bathrooms day after day, you"ve experienced drudgery. Drudgery is hard, mindless, backbreaking work. main"tain verb \mān-G2;tān, mən- : to cause (something) to exist or continue without changing : to keep (something) in good condition by making repairs, correcting problems, etc. : to continue having or doing (something) MAINTAIN:transitive verb http://www.merriam-webster.com... : to cause (something) to exist or continue without changing : to keep (something) in good condition by making repairs, correcting problems, etc. : to continue having or doing (something) 1: to keep in an existing state (as of repair, efficiency, or validity) : preserve from failure or decline 2: to sustain against opposition or danger : uphold and defend perpetuate:transitive verb : to cause (something that should be stopped, such as a mistaken idea or a bad situation) to continue : to make perpetual or cause to last indefinitely classism:noun : unfair treatment of people because of their social or economic class : prejudice or discrimination based on class As I also do not intend to argue semantics, I will begin by making some generalizations and prerequisite principles that can be countered or argued by Con if she disagrees. 1. There are different forms of slavery. 2. Wage slavery is not chattel slavery. 3. An application is not a contract. An application cannot be considered a contract. One of the primary requirements for a valid contract is that there must be an offer and an acceptance of that offer. For example, a job application would be considered the offer -- that is, the person who completes the application is offering his/her services in an employment situation. For the acceptance portion, the prospective employer would have to approve the person's application and agree to hire that individual. There must also be a "meeting of the minds," that is, both parties to the contract must agree on the terms of their contract. In the example I've given above, both parties would have to agree on items such as the applicant's job duties, the salary that he/she would receive (which is usually subject to negotiation between the parties), the amount of annual vacation he/she would receive, etc., etc. For these reasons, an application is totally one-sided, and it cannot be considered a contract. http://www.justanswer.com... 4. Even chattel slaves were paid "In some cases, slaves could earn money from their master if they performed tasks with particular skill." [1] 5. A serf is a slave http://dictionary.reference.com...=/ serf:noun 1. a person in a condition of servitude, required to render services to a lord, commonly attached to the lord's land and transferred with it from one owner to another. 2. a slave. Serfdom: noun - bour on land belonging to another person and to render some determinate service to such other person, whether for reward or not, and is not free to change his status http://www.hrea.org... 6. A worker is a slave if they aren't paid a livable 'wage' or paid just enough to continue working and provide sustenance. Wage slavery is the predominate form of oppression today. Workers are forced to sell themselves (actually, their labor power) in order to survive. Instead of being owned, and provided for in some fashion, they are "free" for the remainder of the day. However, economic necessity prevents the overwhelming mass of humanity from being truly free. Survival is linked to becoming a wage slave for another. In most cases, the "other" is a giant corporation. http://www.peaceandfreedom.org... 7. A person can be deemed a slave if expected to perform tasks that the agreed upon wage did not include or have no control over when and how long they will be laboring. The very idea of wage-labour requires two difficult conceptual steps. First it requires the abstraction of a man's labour from both his person and the product of his work. When one purchases an object from an independent craftsman " one has not bought his labour but the object, which he had produced in his own time and under his own conditions of work. But when one hires labour, one purchases an abstraction, labour-power, which the purchaser then uses at a time and under conditions which he, the purchaser, not the "owner" of the labour-power, determines (and for which he normally pays after he has consumed it). Second, the wage labour system requires the establishment of a method of measuring the labour one has purchased, for purposes of payment, commonly by introducing a second abstraction, namely labour-time.[2] http://en.wikipedia.org... Depending on one's perspective this can be viewed as a simple or complex argument. It is my position that wage labor or wage slavery was created as a means of maintaining and perpetuating the lifestyle of the upper class after the legal abolition of chattel slavery. Wage labor was a more efficient method of maintaining the class hierarchy and bolstering capitalism as societies moved from agrarian to industrial. Wage slavery "protects the institution of private ownership of the means of production"which guarantees the concentration of capital among a wealthy elite leaving the majority of the population without access. As some opponents of wage labour take influence from Marxist propositions, many are opposed to private property, but maintain respect for personal property. A point of criticism is that after people have been compelled by economic necessity to no feasible alternative than that of wage labour, exploitation occurs; thus the claim that wage labour is "voluntary" on the part of the labourer is considered a red herring as the relationship is only entered into due to systemic coercion brought about by the inequality of bargaining power between labour and capital as classes." [3] In the post slavery United States, for example, it was no longer beneficial for owners of chattel slaves to provide food, clothing and shelter for surplus labor. The wealthy elite mentioned in the previous citation used wages as a means of maintaining control over the land and resources while assuring control over labor. They certainly were not willing or accustomed to performing menial tasks for themselves. Though Con has suggested that wages are determined by the market, I assert that wages are arbitrarily determined by this elite group or what has become the corporatocracy. Evidence of this is illustrated yearly when massive profits are accumulated by corporations, yet, wages for the workers do not rise and often decline. Also, the collusion between government and corporations can be seen in instances of corporate welfare or government bailouts. In regards to menial labor there are closer ties to forms of slavery: 1. Workers are expected to perform tasks that were not part of their original agreement. (i.e. hired as a cashier, yet, instructed to perform stock duties, serve as a cook, or whatever task the 'boss' requires to be performed. This is not free will.) 2. They often work in harsh conditions that are dangerous 3. They workers may be injured without compensation. The low wage worker has little opportunity for advancement or upward mobility. They are working for survival. The have no 'true' ability for self determination or chance of achieving the illusive American dream. Wage slavery is not limited to low wage workers. Many are unaware of their slave status. As stated in the article "Are you a Wage Slave": http://www.worldsocialism.org... "If you are fortunately situated, you may feel that my argument doesn"t apply to you...."What sort of slave can I be? I am not ordered about all the time. On the contrary...You are deluding yourself...What makes your delusion possible is that you have grown accustomed to analyse problems from your employer"s point of view. You are every bit as alienated from your own thinking as the assembly line worker is from his or her physical movements." Sources: http://www.historyextra.com... [1] Finley, Moses I. (1973). The ancient economy. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 65. [2] http://en.wikipedia.org... [3]