Joined: Oct 12, 2004 Posts: 599 Location: The Pit of Despair
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:01 pm Post subject: Re: Slavery by another name
Modern slavery in developed countries is not accomplished with whips or chains, but instead by brainwashing the population into believing that it is alright to take on the burden of irresponsible debts.
Most Americans are debt slaves because of the commercials they see on television, or because of the car they see their neighbor drive, or the brand new house their co-worker just bought.
Not only do Americans gladly accept the brainwashing, but they also willingly pay their satellite provider or cable company for it!
Wow. There are probably a bunch of fat guys smoking cigars in a mansion right now laughing their asses off about it, about how dumb the sheeple are.
All in all, it's a million times better than whips, though. We get shiny cars and fancy houses, until the bank comes knocking. And at least we have the power to free ourselves, if we just exercise our brainpower a little.
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 5:01 am Post subject: Re: Slavery by another name
JoeW wrote:
Most Americans are debt slaves because of the commercials they see on television, or because of the car they see their neighbor drive, or the brand new house their co-worker just bought.
In addition to the debt slaves in America you have the vast majority of prostitutes which are slaves to their pimp/drug dealer. And any drug addict for that matter is also a slave. . Yes slavery is alive and well in the USA sadly.
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 5:52 am Post subject: Re: Slavery by another name
Cashmere wrote:
With the exception of the FF age, the story of history has been the same: a few on top, most on the bottom.
We'll return to that because no other model works.
No other model works in civilisation, as someone else has mentioned. Actually for the majority of the species existance most humans lived in relatively egalitarian tribes subsisting of the land. Overpopulation and the agricultural revolution, with the need to protect large supplies of food in a coherent manner lead to an upper class who were defined by wealth and power. Will we return to this? Maybe. However, it should be added that the life of a poor roman citizen or medieval serf, regardless of the short life span, was not actually as bad as that of the industrialised worker after the 19th century. He had a community, he had relatively important and not necessarily entirely monotonous work and his hours and the time off he had in the year was far greater.
Industrial civilisation is a scam on every level. It has let our population bloom to ridiculously high levels, it has alienated us from each other and cut out an essential element of human existence in communities, it has made us into machines whose role should be solely defined by our constant working, and thus told us we should constant consume and destroy and use natural materials in a never ending grab of production or working towards something in the educational system and it is based on a lie: that material wealth and prosperity = happiness. Yes the basic functions of life do equal happiness, food, shelter, and small pleasures. Psychologists have estimated that increases in wealth up to about $30k-$35k will increase one's happiness. Does a giant house, a 37" flat screen TV, and a SUV?! And yet - we are told it is so desirable we should sacrifice a sizeable portion of our existence to get these. No, I will gladly see industrial soceity die, I just hope I can live to see past it through the die-off.
Joined: Sep 29, 2004 Posts: 2330 Location: Pennsylvania, USA
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 8:10 am Post subject: Re: Slavery by another name
Communism is impossible with an armed population. Communism is based on the idea of centralized government control of resources and property "in the interests of the working man." In a pure communist system, the government ultimately owns all property - there is no private property. The definition of private property is property which is defended either by law or force, usually both. If the population is armed, then they (the public) will seek to defend what they consider their own and pure anarchy becomes the norm until people group together based on commonalities and then a feudal system takes over. The very first thing that must happen if communism is to be realized is the confiscation of all arms from the public. Communism is just another elitist system of control with "working mans" ethics. _________________ "That's the problem with mercy, kid... It just ain't professional" - Fast Eddie, The Color of Money
Joined: Apr 08, 2006 Posts: 1338 Location: Somewhere there
Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 11:12 am Post subject: Re: Slavery by another name
Ok, so before, to get labour, one had to pay $1000 ( what would it be nowdays ? $60000? ) , provide food, cloth, shelter , medical care ( would you get a vet for your 60K pet? I would), and once the slave becomes old or seriously sick disabled one had to take a huge loss by selling him for peanuts.
$1000 could bring $40-50 in interests in that time, tax free of course.
What does it take to get labour now? " Help Needed" sign in the window and $5 an hour. Will these $5 an hour , or $40 per day suffice for food, shelter, cloth?
So basically slavery disappeared just because:
1) free men pay for " tear&wear" from their own pocket
2) no initial investment;
3) free men can be thrown away at convinience;
imagine McDonalds shelling out $50-60 K for each employee, and be responsible to take care of their housing, alimentation, medical care, sick days ets.
Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:41 am Post subject: Re: Slavery by another name
Communist system also passed laws. Hence, as an example, resulting in sending millions of people to the gulags in Siberia for doing nothing (neighbor informed on an opinion expressed) or next to nothing.
Just saw a documentary on how the town of Norils (nickel producing) in Siberia was build with slave labor. People sent out there in many cases for what today would seem insane reasons. Working in sub-freezing temperatures digging permafrost with a shovel. Norm for women was 2 ft per day in one case. Sorry, communism did not fit the Russian soul and I am not sure what other large country could do better.
The answer I suspect is probable in small groups which were the preferred model in tough conditions. Small is more manageable and more directly controlled. _________________ Men argue, nature acts !
Voltaire
"...In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation."
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