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What is the term for how society tries to make out it’s OK to pay people below what it takes to live, but wrong for slavery

So I've been thinking about this lately, and I find it interesting how society hates actual slavery where the master has to provide a place for the slave to sleep, basic food, maybe basic med (because new slaves cost a lot), and so on. But the person can't leave and so on. BUT society also loves how min wage should be below cost of living, how many parts of the world like the USA there is virtually no worker rights and if someone doesn't deal with questionable stuff which can physically/mentally wreck them then they will be fired/risk homelessness Where the society thinks it's OK to pay the average family so little they have to live off debt or live off paycheck to paycheck. And then you have general media and companies that are trying to actively not do remote jobs when jobs can be 100% remote. And this forces…


So I've been thinking about this lately, and I find it interesting how society hates actual slavery where the master has to provide a place for the slave to sleep, basic food, maybe basic med (because new slaves cost a lot), and so on. But the person can't leave and so on.

BUT society also loves how min wage should be below cost of living, how many parts of the world like the USA there is virtually no worker rights and if someone doesn't deal with questionable stuff which can physically/mentally wreck them then they will be fired/risk homelessness

Where the society thinks it's OK to pay the average family so little they have to live off debt or live off paycheck to paycheck. And then you have general media and companies that are trying to actively not do remote jobs when jobs can be 100% remote. And this forces you to live in a given area.

So to me this seems like another form of slavery.

  • While you don't get physically hit. Your boss can verbally abuse you, constantly threaten your job, threaten your job if they find out you are working multiple jobs, try to use exploitive terms like “we are a “company family” or “company friends”, and so on. And in many jobs if you try to take a day off to see a doctor, then you are threaten to be fired. There is even tons of reports of things like women given birth and the manager threaten to fire the person if the person doesn't show up for work the same day or next.
  • While you get paid for your work, unlike slavery times the master doesn't have to pay for housing, land, food, etc (they had to back in the day since a dead slave can't work.) And since large numbers of people live paycheck to paycheck or debt to debt, it seems like the master just passed that bit off on the person.
  • Just like in slavery times a boss can massively change what you do at a workplace. For example, you could go from being a normal accountant to overnight being a janitor added on your duties. Or it could be the thing of the day. Where you honestly have no idea what you would be doing day to day. Not like a doctor because doctors stay within medical. But like a min wage worker where you might be a delivery person today, to front desk, to picking up trash outside, to whatever the boss wants. But you were hired for sales.
  • In both, the boss can completely lie to you and nothing happens. Like today the boss would lie about getting a promotion, pay increase, or if you do something then you risk a possible promotion. Back in the day it was freedom, switching from working in the field to inside the house, where you were on the ladder (like some had slaves overseeing other slaves and they treated them well in compare to other slaves but horrible compared to the owner. Think of it like the modern manager)

I can keep going because there is a ton other comparisons. If you want to list some below then please do so.

Anyways, is there a term for this?

I was thinking

“slavery but extra steps”

But it seems to be too much of a mouth full. IMO there should be a term for this as quick and easy to put out like calling someone a boomer.

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Note the reason why I'm posting this and asking if there is a term. It's because I honestly think there should be a term which directly links modern min wage and modern society treatment of workers to slavery. Something that gets people to think, and hopefully those people will be connected to or in some power (gov or company) and they might try to fix it.

If not, then at least we can make fun of it and earmark this time for what it is in history if the term becomes popular enough. That away the future will look back and see the majority didn't want it to be like this, but were forced to live like this.

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