One type of slavery is wage slavery. To put the situation simply: you achieve wage slavery by exploiting workers who use their wages to live. One indication that you are a wage slave is if the reduction of your wages (for living expenses) is total and immediate after being compensated for your labor. The point of wage slavery is to make the individual dependent on the income of their labor, but not pay them enough to afford even basic living needs. In effect, this 'traps' the worker in a cycle of perpetual survival.
Why does wage slavery exist? As with all forms of slavery, it exists because there is an economic incentive for it. Marx had this idea of '
surplus labor', which was any labor that exceeded 'necessary labor.' In other words, if a pizza costs $10 to make and the owner spends $2 in materials and $4 in labor costs to turn a $4 profit, the cheaper he can make pizza, the more money/profit he is left with. "Cutting costs" (which is often labor-related) is what companies do to make a large profit for shareholders. Usually, though, it's hard to find a price cut for materials. So, in order to make a larger profit, you "stretch out" labor. Instead of paying $4 in labor for each pizza, the owner cuts wages or (more likely) makes the worker work longer for the same pay.
This is one of the reasons it is so important for wealthy capitalists to prohibit unions, because unions protect labor wages (which means decreased profits for shareholders). Without unions, the laborer has a highly unequal bargaining power that favors the owner.
Wal-Mart is not an example of wage slavery (yet), but its business practices are reprehensible and relate to this topic. In order to reduce its costs, Wal-Mart doesn't provide its employees with health care. Instead, they encourage employees to use the government's medicaid program, which externalizes the cost of medical care onto the taxpayer. In effect, the American taxpayer subsidizes Wal-Mart as a business. (And Wal-Mart does not allow unions; period!)
However, a perfect example of wage slavery is those who work in sweatshops, or prisoners who work for pennies on the dollar while incarcerated. If you pepper in intimidation, sexual harassment, and coercion, you have a typical modern-day wage slave. This creates a feeling of desperation and compliance on behalf of the worker. And once the mentality of dominance is established through fear and aggression, the term 'slavery' becomes all too applicable.
Thanks for reading! Please comment!
wow!!!! powerful
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