Is work really just enslavement?

What a bunch of whiners!!!

I started my first business at 18 by the time I was 38 I was millionair. At 47 I lost everything by overextending myself when the economy started on this downwardspiral we apresently in.

I made it by hard work and investing in realeastate the first time, I'll do it again!

By no means was I a slave.

Those who feel enslaved in America are enslaved by their own limited ideas. Wake UP!

That said pay attention or Obama and his progressive crew will have us all enslaved in a one world government!

Sally Hemmy wrote:

Why are American's working 12 hour shifts for next to nothing like slaves,

You don't even know how to write in English, so it's obvious why you are stuck doing menial work.

********You don't even know how to write in English, so it's obvious why you are stuck doing menial work.*******

Nor do you.

I did 20 years in the military then spent a about 10 years doing a lame job 30 hours a week. At 48 I went on Foodstamps and have been on them all the way to 63, soon I will get full military pension, and social security. I am set!

UncleB wrote:

Yes.

Probably something like 95% of us are wage slaves.

Capitalism enforces a strict class system, with the labor of the many enriching the few owners.

The fact that the tiny owning class has nearly all of the net worth does not prevent the vast majority of its members from being miserable and unhappy people.

Time for something new. Or old (pre agrarian).

Karl Marx would be proud...

The beauty of capitalism is that you are not destined to remain in your class. I am wealthier now than my parents ever were. Bill Gates started out comfortable is now one of the richest persons in the world. Few of the top 1000 wealthiest Americans were born to parents who were in the top 1000 at any time.

As for agrarian or pre-agrarian: no thanks.

Master Ken wrote:

Actually, most probably have it WORSE than Slaves did.

Slaves at least got fed and were provided housing..

Now you can work 80 hours a week, and have to buy your own food and housing. Miss a payment and the banks will take your house. Fail to pay the property tax and the State will take your house.

When the crops weren't in season (winter time) slaves basically were on vacation to do what they pleased. American workers typically only get 2 weeks off at most.

Granted slaves had zero say in what they did and depending on whom your master was you might get treated kindly (not very often) or very harshly (beaten for looking at them).

Workers today have very little say in what they do, and often times are hired for one thing only to be forced to do something else or lose their jobs.

I love how you are so dismissive of freedom. Slaves were taken (or sold) from where they were born and lived with families and friends. In the US, they were segregated from other members of their tribes (language barriers made revolts harder), they were ripped from wives, they were told where to live, what to do and whom to make babies with.

You obviously have no clue about farming (inlaws own a farm). There is no sitting around in the winter. There is a lot to do.

Slaves had no chance to become free or decide they wanted to try a new job or work for someone else. There were laws against teaching slaves to read.

Yeah, compare your life to that of a slave.

Yes, choosing who I want to marry, where I want to live, the people I want to associate with, the books I want to read, the things I want to do, and the future that I would like all are worse than being a slave.

Our lives are not completely free, but they also aren't worse than the life an illiterate slave farmer. Stop reading books with pie-in-the-sky theories and do something useful that slaves didn't have the freedom to do.

actually, as I recall, about a third of the wealthiest (300 or 500?) in this country inherited their wealth. The Walton(Walmart) and Ford and Rockefeller families, for instance.

Since you don't have to, work is not slavery. Slaves had not choice. You can freely choose to not work. Such a life may be undesirable, but, it is not going to get you killed, beaten or imprisoned.

Work is for suckers. Avoid it if you can.

luv2run wrote:

[quote]UncleB wrote:

Yes.

Probably something like 95% of us are wage slaves.

Capitalism enforces a strict class system, with the labor of the many enriching the few owners.

The fact that the tiny owning class has nearly all of the net worth does not prevent the vast majority of its members from being miserable and unhappy people.

Time for something new. Or old (pre agrarian).

Karl Marx would be proud...

The beauty of capitalism is that you are not destined to remain in your class.

So what? The top 1/1oth of one percent have a higher total net worth than the bottom 75%. The fact that you dream that someday you will be in that top 1/10th of one percent -- or even in the extremely unlikely event you ever make it there, does not change the fact that the vast majority are taken advantage of to enrich the few.

That is the "beauty of capitalism". Capital is king, labor (people) ain't sh&t.

I agree with Uncle B. Furthermore, I think we are currently in neo-slavery. When a job dictates when you have to work, where you have to work and when you can take vacation or how many days you can be sick then you are a slave to the job. 99% of Americans will stay at the same level of socio-economic status. It scares me to think how myself and my friends are in near identical situations our parents were at our age. We're all 24 years old in graduate school hoping that we can survive in a middle class world just like our parents.

Bigger Idiot wrote:

********You don't even know how to write in English, so it's obvious why you are stuck doing menial work.*******

Nor do you.

I see nothing wrong with his sentence.

Work is the essence of life. Taxation is enslavemetn.

By the way, the concentration of wealth is not caused by capitalism, it's caused by government controls slanted in favor of the rich.

sam adams wrote:

I agree with Uncle B. Furthermore, I think we are currently in neo-slavery. When a job dictates when you have to work, where you have to work and when you can take vacation or how many days you can be sick then you are a slave to the job. 99% of Americans will stay at the same level of socio-economic status. It scares me to think how myself and my friends are in near identical situations our parents were at our age. We're all 24 years old in graduate school hoping that we can survive in a middle class world just like our parents.

Yep. Hopefully we can survive being better off than 99.99+% of all people who have ever lived on earth. It'll be hard, but I'll try to be strong and make it through my agonizing existence as a poor exploited worker who will just barely be able to afford a giant house in the suburbs and multiple cars.

It's rough here in the US. As you say, you can't even decide where you work (at least after you have accepted a job and, well, decided where you want to work). It just doesn't make any damn sense to create this system in which everyone who works together is forced to do so in the same place at the same time. I doubt there is any logistical reasoning behind this. And the whole matter of being told when I can take a vacation, well I should be able to stand up from my desk and run of to Tuscany for a few days whenever I please. Who the hell are these capitalist pigs to tell me that I have to work under some set of rules and expectations if I want to be paid?

you whiners are pathetic. go buy an island and live off the land. see how happy and free you feel after the first drought, hurricane, or famine.

of course things get out of hand with the big bankers and politicians hording wealth. that's the downside of capitalism. but the problem with your "capitalism is evil" bullshit is that you have no viable alternative. become a part of the real world, or seriously--go hide in the woods without all of the comforts capitalism has provided for us. We're sick of supporting you. see how long you last on 40 hours of relatively low effort work per week. then get back to us.

you sad morons are going to kill the west. the people who were or are really slaves would be sickened by you.

Bear of Bad News wrote:

And the whole matter of being told when I can take a vacation, well I should be able to stand up from my desk and run of to Tuscany for a few days whenever I please. Who the hell are these capitalist pigs to tell me that I have to work under some set of rules and expectations if I want to be paid?

Under capitalism, if you don't like the terms of your employment, you have the freedom to quit your job and search for another one, or to start your business. There is no enslavement as long as you have your freedom of action. The fact that you may have responsibilities which prevent you from quitting your job does not mean you are enslaved - that's your own fault, not your employer's.

You come off like a pathetic baby who wants unearned happiness served to him on a silver platter. You really think you should be able to just leave your job whenever you want to recreate? You really think the company should just allow you to come and go as you please, and keep you around and pay you for doing nothing there are hundreds or thousands of other desperate job candidates who would gladly work for a paycheck? What a f*cking infant.

sam adams wrote:

I agree with Uncle B. Furthermore, I think we are currently in neo-slavery. When a job dictates when you have to work, where you have to work and when you can take vacation or how many days you can be sick then you are a slave to the job. 99% of Americans will stay at the same level of socio-economic status. It scares me to think how myself and my friends are in near identical situations our parents were at our age. We're all 24 years old in graduate school hoping that we can survive in a middle class world just like our parents.

Yep. Hopefully we can survive being better off than 99.99+% of all people who have ever lived on earth. It'll be hard, but I'll try to be strong and make it through my agonizing existence as a poor exploited worker who will just barely be able to afford a giant house in the suburbs and multiple cars.

It's rough here in the US. As you say, you can't even decide where you work (at least after you have accepted a job and, well, decided where you want to work). It just doesn't make any damn sense to create this system in which everyone who works together is forced to do so in the same place at the same time. I doubt there is any logistical reasoning behind this. And the whole matter of being told when I can take a vacation, well I should be able to stand up from my desk and run of to Tuscany for a few days whenever I please. Who the hell are these capitalist pigs to tell me that I have to work under some set of rules and expectations if I want to be paid?[/quote]

The majority US worker have giant houses in the suburbs and multiple cars...and can run off to Tuscany for w few days whenever they want to? Maybe in your fantasy world...or are you saying that you have these things and the hell with everyone else? Whichever it is, you are not a person to be respected