this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Okay hate on capitalism, fair enough

But equating it to literal slavery like we've had in the past (and still have in some parts of the world) seems problematic to me

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What literal slavery? The pyramids weren’t built with slave labor.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's a dude with a whip in the picture, so it seems like the artist believes it was slave labor

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It’s a common misconception.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labor.

Having 100% exclusive rights over the fruits of a person's labor, so, a job.

Slavery typically involves compulsory work with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage.

Ever applied for a mortgage?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Having 100% exclusive rights over the fruits of a person’s labor, so, a job.

But they don't. I can end this arrangement at any point in time.

Ever applied for a mortgage?

Yes, and I can't remember anyone forcing me to buy this specific apartment, or preventing me from selling it and moving anywhere else.

Regardless, my point wasn't that work isn't slavery, my point is that the pyramids weren't built with slave labor.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Experience demonstrates that there may be a slavery of wages only a little less galling and crushing in its effects than chattel slavery, and that this slavery of wages must go down with the other."

— Frederick Douglass

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I suspect that most other actual slaves would not entirely agree with that sentiment

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Frederick Douglass the famous non-slave

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your original stance was that it is "problematic" to equate them. Do you think it was problematic for Fredrick Douglass to equate them? If not then your original position has to change.

We don't have polling on prior chattel slave views on wage slavery, but since you're making a habit of just going with your gut, I'll do the same. I'd wager most prior chattel slaves would've been more than happy to abolish all forms of slavery (including wage slavery).

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Douglass died in 1895 when the standard of living was wildly lower than what it is today, its not an equivalent comparison

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

“Gee, I know I said all that about wage slavery, but who could have predicted iPhones and corn syrup. This is great!”

Read the shit you’re making claims about.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Why don't you do the same? Your original quote is 137 years old. It is in fact problematic to equate the economic landscape of 2023 to that of 1886. In that quote Douglass is specifically criticizing the treatment of freed slaves, not capitalism in general. (If you want to convince people capitalism is bad, you need to make valid criticisms, not twist old quotes to suit your narrative)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

we’ve had in the past

we definitely still have slavery in America. Like, in America. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of companies that outsource their slavery to other countries and then ship the product here so we can pretend it's not made by slaves, but plenty of companies skip the middle man and just use slaves here

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Never mind the foreign interest campaigns to get Americans to be less productive