This 4 page paper is an argumentative essay, putting forward the view that wage labour is slave labour, looking at how and why this may be the case, considering the arguments for and against and providing a conclusion that supports the initial assertion.
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which they require in order to pay for the goods and services they need. This reliance on wages may be seen as creating form of slavery; where the worker is
reliant on the wage payer for survival, having to do their bidding and serve their employer in order to gain the wages. There may be some freedom; the worker may
choose to leave one employment for another, but this does not change the potential status as a slave, merely changes the ownership of the slave. There certainly appear to be
some aspects of a slave relationship, but there arte also other characteristics which indicate that the relationship is more complex and while there may be an asymmetrical power in the
employment relationship, there are sufficient choices and powers on the part of the employee which mean that the relationship s not one akin to slavery. The question is whether wage
labour is akin to slave labour. The concept of slavery dates back to the historical context where slaves were chattels rather than individuals. The slaves and their labour were owned
by others and had few rights. They earned their keep with their labour, and were subject to the whims and controls of their owners. The power all rested with the
slave owners and the slaves had to endure the whims of those owners. In todays world wage labour may be seen as akin to a modern form of slavery.
This is not to distort the concept of the past or minimise the terrible experiences of slaves of the past, as there are many differences. Today the employees have a
much higher level of empowerment. In the social context the workers are not chattels, they are individuals who have legal and enforceable rights, the employers cannot exercise the same level
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