I Like Plants, you're right, most self-employed people work very hard, longer hours than they work for other people. I often get paid less now than I did when I worked for other people, but for me, it's been worth it.

Doly, I agree, most people who can't make it in the system are suffering from various illnesses and disorders. It's not likely they will do well when times get even tougher.

Presently, I don't mind people being deadbeats and living off the work of others, though they really aren't taking enough to have much of an effect on the military industrial complex. But I'd rather pay for them than pay for bombing people in another country.

There is a substantial population who are opting out of the system, joining the intentional communities movement, Walk Away movement, neo-tribalism, primitivists, etc. These people usually make a point to learn survival skills, and they should do well. Many if not most of them are PO aware.

Yes, the "escaped slaves" that are noticeable are the mentally ill homeless. But I think there are even more who have opted out, and you have to look sharp to see them, because most don't look homeless.

Ludi,

Thanks for the pep talk.

I too am headed "my way" for the forseable future>>>>an escaped Slave from two states.

the "system" is in for some shocks..the sooner we learn to do without, the better we fare in the long run.

It's all about reproduction.

Every society has its way of establishing a social structure so as to attract desirable mates, so as to raise healty offspring and pass down "desirable" genetic material to the next generation.

In our society, it is pretty well engrained by about the 7th grade that a big house and cool car is an indicator of status and desirability for mating purposes. This is not unique to the US. English literature is full of this sort of thing. In Asia, and Africa, a system of matchmaking/arranged marriages/dowry has developed to accomplish the same thing. The advertisers picked up on this years ago.

So in short, the reason most people do not take to the streets (or the woods, for that matter) is that if they do, they will not be able to get a date.

Of course, there will always be an element of "animal magnetism", pheromones, physical attributes, and to an extent, if you are really good looking (or good smelling, presumably) you will still be able to find a mate, but I must say, if my daughter starts dating street bums, we are going to have to have a talk, peak oil or not. You have some social stigma to overcome.

My own theory is this system has started to break down a little bit because of the availability of easy credit. It used to be, at least in the US, that you sort of had to have it together to be able to afford a big house and a cool car. You either had to be intelligent, or persuasive, or have some other ability that society rewarded you for. At the very least, you had to be kind of a nice, responsible guy, or the bank would not lend you the money. So, maybe for awhile, the system worked. Now, however, with easy credit, even an idiot can have a big house and a cool car. Therefore, there are a lot of incorrect signals being sent out, and people end up with inappropriate mates. I am sure if you track the divorce rate compared to the consumer debt since 1970, there would be a strong correlation, and people will obviously blame this on incresed pressures, two income families, etc. but I hypothesize that some amount of this is due to bad choosing of mates due to incorrect signals being sent out as to the desirability of a given jerk from a reproduction standpoint because they happen to have a given level of material posessions.

Incredibly, the availability of easy credit makes it possible to overcome some of the animal issues as well. A popular TV show, "Extreme Makeover" is based on the idea that with some amount of plastic surgery, which presumably you can also charge up on your credit card, you can overcome what nature gave you in order to attract a better mate. Talk about sending an incorrect signal!

Anyway, the above might make an interesting Master's thesis or Doctoral Dissertation if anybody cared to do research in to this matter.

Before I ever heard of Peak Oil, I had already started to make the connection between consumerism and what I called "voluntary slavery". It is so obvious to me that all this desire for new, better, bigger, etc. is only making us work harder and harder, but with diminishing returns. Or more to the point, that's what I saw when I looked in the mirror.

So when I decided to downsize my consumption, pay off my debts, that was the primary motivator. It has a nice benefit of helping prepare for upcoming changes...

Yep it's the "consumer treadmill" or "capitalist treadmill" or as some call it, the "suburban treadmill" and people have been talking about getting off of it for the last 100 years, if you look up the literature. But with Peak Oil it's going to become obvious to even the more deeply brainwashed that it's a trap.

Heh. Yeah. I'm one of those escaped slaves.

Suckas. You're all bought and sold. The best you can do is to be aware of this fact.
Most people aren't.

Not interested in playing the game, having kids, etc.

I'm just watching that mountain of shit gracefully arc towards the fan.

I was perusing the U.S Constitution, and came across this item:

Note the key phrase, underlined for your convenience.

My interpretation of this is that a person could be enslaved for a period of time, or permanently, if convicted of a crime.

So - Is there any legal or constitutional prohibition of slavery that couldn't be easily changed?

Do our European members' nations have stronger or weaker prohibitions?

What is the liklihood that convicted criminals could be forced into slavery as Peak Oil creates more economic problems?

The 2 million incarcerated slaves, err.. prisoners in prisons today might have an opinion about this.

I think slavery is already evident in this country and has always been with us. A great many laws are on the books supporting victimless crimes, which only serve to create more slaves, in service and profit to the State and the privately run corporations.

But I don't know the answers to your legal questions. However, you said

You don't have to be convicted any longer to be incarcerated indefinitely. The Patriot Act saw to that.

And convicted criminals are already being forced into slavery. The existing prison system takes advantage of the rather large labor pool and forces the prisoners to work. Payment is either a pittance or free, as I understand it. Would Peak Oil change that? If anything, it would worsen the situation. Consider that prisoners use less resources then the allegedly free man or woman and they're not driving SUV's, plus the added benefit of working for next to nothing.

What we are seeing is more "crimes" are being added to the books to create more victims by the State - and more fines, restitution and prisoners - creating a larger and larger slave labor pool. We have more prisoners in the United States then Russia and China - combined, with a fraction of the population. Are we more criminally minded? It's the wrong question to ask. Is our government more criminally minded? Since they get to write and enforce the "rules" - and since it serves to their benefit - it's not hard to see where this is going.

Up until WW2 the prison systems in southern states were basically a slave for hire operation. Black men would be given long prison terms for minor crimes. Then the state would rent the prisoners out as a source of cheap labor. This system worked out even better for southern land owners than slavery because if you pay $2000USD for a slave you have to make sure that slave has a decent place to sleep and decent food in order to protect your investment. But if you are just renting a prisoner what do you care if he has a decent place to sleep or decent food. If a prisoner dies just order another one from the state.

Personally I really don’t see this system coming back. Most of the poor in the US do not have the right attitude to be slaves (myself included), and most of the US population is so well armed that any slavery plan would be met with incredible violence (myself included). Besides, there will continue to be plenty of illegal workers to fill those spots for a long time to come.

A related story posted just today - Slaves



The above article deals with cases of slavery rings. What we are experiencing here in America (and throughout the world's prison systems) is also slavery. The prison ring of slavery is fundementally the same - individuals lives are being commandered for manufactured reasons of "crime" (in many, but not all cases) and the victims of these actions are being forced to work and perform acts for the benefit and profit of others.

US Slaves

I swear I didn't go looking for this stuff - but I just spotted another article on the US prison system.

There is an answer to your question about Peak Oil in this article. If the Iraqi war is about oil (it is) then war requires the following:

Good grief!! This list is unbelievable (meaning unacceptable)!

Above link is a worthy read if you want to know what is going on in the US prison slavery system.

When you go across the border to Canada or Mexico, they have prisoners asking you for you papers...

I'm sure they aren't getting payed.

I don't understand what you're saying. Canada has customs officers. They are paid. I believe being a non-criminal is one of the job requirements...

The modern idea behind slavery is very simple: make people you slaves without them knowing it.

ie; you're not a slave, you're a prisoner

or you're not a slave, you're just poor and a little down on your luck

or you're not a slave, you're just in debt over your head and cannot, with all the money you'll 'earn' in your lifetime, be able to repay such burdensome debts


Its all a matter of personnal perception and what lies you choose to believe.

Here's a question:

You're all shocked that the prisonners are treated like slaves? Now what will any of you do about it?

My bet; absolutely nothing. You're all quietly going to be content that the slaves in the prison is not you, and that you're not a slave because you're not in prison. All most of you have, is a small job with debts and being forced to pay exorbitant prices for your oil to the profit of the super-rich.