I've been reading a few articles and it is so fascinating to me that in modern day countries like Russia, China and India, there can be so many slaves (~40m, about half in India). Some of them are in forced labor, others are held in debt bondage, having to sometimes pay generations' worth of debts.
I feel like slavery is rampant and commonplace in human society and we see it through our western lens of being a free person. But if you start to see it through a lens of, “I would be a slaveholder if I could”, it makes a little more sense.
I know it is a drastic comparison, but are not a mortgage and car payments forms of debt bondage? Are we not pressured to acquire them, and do not most people have them?
I feel like I knew about modern slavery in the past and it was hard to read about, but the more I look into the truth of wage slavery, the more interesting and informative things become. Some of these systems are basic and barbaric, at least when seen through the eyes of some people, and yet they are where our wage slavery comes from.
There is also of course the prison population in the USA which, I just read, apparently is exclusively responsible for the materials used by the military, and is a large proponent of modern slavery as well.
I think that although this topic is disturbing and very dark, it's necessary to speak about it in order to free ourselves from this “soft”, “light”, brainwash/invisible form of slavery we are still contending with. At least, those who still have to pay for our necessities of living, are, which I do believe is many of us.
One day we will all be free and there will be no slavery anywhere, wage or otherwise. It is a world I can sense coming. 🙂