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16 points
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When I did time in 2005 I worked at a cemetery weed-eating for 24 dollars a month. My cellmate worked at the courthouse as a custodian, and some worked at a factory. I can’t call it slavery because we were paid, and not whipped, but it is definitely exploitation

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14 points

“paid”

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23 points

Forced labor is still slavery even if you’re paid and not whipped.

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1 point

All labor is slavery in a system that doesn’t allow the laborer to keep the value they create.

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35 points
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24 dollars a month. […] we were paid

10c an hour. I can totally see how this is not slave labor.

I’ll tell you what made it slave labor: could you quit that job?

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3 points

I want to take up his point. It’s much more like medieval serfdom than slavery. Such as:

  • Shit salary instead of no salary.
  • Can’t me sold.
  • Has rights (more than a slave, less than a free man)

Although serfs were bound to the land unlike US prisoners where they can be transferred from location to location.

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2 points

Yes, but I lost privileges

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3 points

So, you get punished if you quit. That makes it not voluntary.

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