Why is working for money considered wage slavery?

Why? because we live in an age when we can mass produce all we need.
in England when they started using machines to make things.
the people had a riot. they said it would take jobs.
it did but still they had lots of jobs.
then the robots in factories came along.

they took a Lot of jobs. car plants mostly using robots.
the people complained they took there jobs.
But still there are more jobs than people to do the work?
dont you think there is some thing odd about this?

people think they have to have a job to live a good life.
the government makes people think they have to have a job.

You dont need to work more than about 4 hours a day.
and only about 50% of the people need work.
and that can be made a lot lower.

the rich only get rich if people keep buying all the time.
so they make things to brake or make new ones.

for example, you buy new computer game.
but you need to up grade your computer or buy a new one.
that is a lye. they can easly make the game run on a computer
with half the power they say you need.

I have played a demo game level one.
but I had to up grade ram and graphics to play the full game.
the game was just the same. I put them side by side.

it is just to Make you buy more. so they can make more.
so you have to work more to make the money to buy new rubbish!

they make ever thing to ware out and brake down.
to keep us in a slavery loop.
we dont need to keep doing this.

in england we have a LOT of farm land that is Not used.
the farmer is paid to NOT work the land???
each country could produce all the food it needs.

we could make things to last 100 years not 1 to 5 years.
the whole way we live is a mockery of the people.
we need a BIG riot so the people can take control.

we could live in a world ware food is free to all.
and electricity and gas are free to.
and most other things should be free to.

we could have a world ware you Dont get paid any money.
But you Dont Need to spend any money.
every thing is free. as long as you are not stupid.
that would end most crime to.
why steal when its free.

BUT the Rich keep us as SLAVES !

reply to post by Glargod


So because you have needs you're a slave? You can get independence work for yourself start up a business. Were always going to have biological needs and material desires(maybe not always can't predict the future) and the only way to obtain those things is through work. Wither you work a job, run a business, or forge in the wild. The reason I hate this whole money=slavery thing is its just bumper sticker philosophy with little substance or thought behind it most of the time.

And I've had lived without money before, I've been in poverty and the lowest of low situations. My parents were drug addicts and the good amount of years I've lived with them we usually didn't have food. I'm thankful for my grandparents taking care of me when they did, I finally got the health insurance, good cloths and stable roof over my head. They weren't exactly swimming in dough either both school teacher.

I'll admit they're wage slave cases, I've already said about my experience with them in my first post. However I'm not going to be so vague and abstract to just equate currency with slavery just because its the means we use to fulfill our needs. Because then we might as well say that food itself is a form of slavery because we can't live without it.

Originally posted by Manhater
Maybe if minimum wage was just a bit higher, it wouldn't feel like wage slavery.

Maybe if a small group of rich men hadn't engineered society so we need money to obtain our basic human rights, it wouldn't feel like slavery either...

reply to post by jjf3rd77


Some vids to help answer your question:

reply to post by Truth4Thought

Originally posted by Truth4Thought
reply to post by jjf3rd77

 

Why is working for money considered wage slavery?

One word...

Taxes.

This is missing the point about as much as you possibly can.

I hate taxes. Just like everyone else. But if anything, income taxes exemplify the complete opposite to what wage slavery is - and can actually be used as the perfect counterweight to answer the OP.


Taxes are the one thing, at least in the "ideal" sense, about our economy and our labour that are actually re-invested - through public services, education, infrastructure - back towards us. That doesn't mean these things aren't corrupted the way things work today, but I'm talking about in the ideal.

Because that's what a truly efficient economy is supposed to be about. All of us going to work to improve our overall standard of living as a society. It doesn't matter if we're talking about Capitalism or Communism. It doesn't matter how hard YOU (alone) work. Your life, just like my life, is still integrated into this system and dependent on the contributions of the many, not just your own.



The reason our system today is so skewed towards "wage slavery" is because although we make up the 99% or whatever of the labour force that actually drive the economy, our collective efforts are constantly being hijacked and siphoned off to serve the needs wants of the rich and powerful, instead of our own.


This is done subtley so that you can still be convinced all the while that you're "free".

- It's done every time YOUR hard work for some company is rewarded by the CEO quietly giving himself some disproportionate, big fat bonus.

- It's done every time you are convinced to reward yourself instead by taking on more debt, through credit cards, car loans, mortgages, whatever - thus further signing your life away to some money lender while they generate wealth for themselves literally out of nothing (interest).

- It's done every time a politician is bought and paid for, or someone from the banking industry is hired on to head the banking oversight committee

- It's done every time people are brainwashed by advertising into buying some useless piece of junk they don't need, just so it can break in 6 months because of planned obscelesence.

- It's done every time the rich give themselves more tax breaks under the guise that it will create more jobs, which they then promptly send to China so they can pay some 13-year old 13 cents an hour to build the thing that will just break in 6 months.



This is what wage slavery is: the idea that you work hard for your own betterment when really you are little more than a pawn in a giant fraudulent system that is inherently designed to exploit you and everyone else, whether you realize it or not.



It is much bigger, much more complicated, and much more subtle than just taxes. All the rhetoric and fear-mongering over taxes is just another decoy/control mechanism they use to keep people from looking at the bigger picture.

Slavery isnt about what you have to do. For slavery to be there has to be a slave master and a slave. If everybody works on the cotton field under the same conditions and with the same reward as prospect its not slavery.

Same with money. If I have the power to declare my paper the only legal tender print myself all the money I want while everybody else is forbidden from doing so and has to work to get any of that money, then I am the slaver and those who have to work to get what I create freely are the enslaved.

The inequity is comprised of multiple layers of privilege and exclusivity, resulting in the manipulation of masses by:
1) Sequestering privileged information for gain by those who can
2) Percolating control vertically, along with that information
3) Allowing some to print money out of thin air, while others have to find someone who has some and subordinate to them in action or inaction in order to obtain a paltry amount
4) Control of the media, whereby we truly have little remaining investigative and provocative journalism but instead replace it with propaganda and mass mind/emotion control
5) Direct and indirect interference with individual, group, and mass awareness of potential, by various means of noise and subjugation

But it's OK. All of that has had its heyday. It is waning. Our sovereign potential cannot be bound.

Originally posted by peacemind
The inequity is comprised of multiple layers of privilege and exclusivity, resulting in the manipulation of masses by:

3) Allowing some to print money out of thin air, while others have to find someone who has some and subordinate to them in action or inaction in order to obtain a paltry amount


But it's OK. All of that has had its heyday. It is waning. Our sovereign potential cannot be bound.

3.) Is only a problem if money is infused in a way in the system, where you have a group of people who can get it for free basically. Then you would have a group of persons who are the slavers. If however money is infused in a system in a way that everybody has the same chance to get it, then no man is above the other.

On the other points I cant comment in detail yet, but people should ask themselves in this system, who is it who makes the most money, those who worked the hardest and provide the greatest value to society, scientists, etc. . And if it isnt scientists doctors or other people who have abilities far above the average who make the most money, then what does it take to make it to the top of the financial pyramid with the current system and what does it do those who are on the top and those who are not?

I will never understand or endorse this mindset. It looks like I might be the minority in this thread, but I have to chime in.

Many posters here talk about how we are "victimized" by consumerism. I call crap on that. We are not children. We can control ourselves. No one forces you to go get a credit card to pay for stuff you can't afford. No one "needs" an iPhone or the like. The problem is we all think we "deserve" all of these toys. If you can't be happy without all of these gadgets and extras, then the problem is YOURS. If commercials make you want stuff you can't afford, STOP WATCHING THEM.

Also, work only takes so much of your time, and there is plenty of time left in our lives for enjoyable activities. There are 168 hours in a week (24X7). Let's say you work 40 hours per week, and sleep 56 hours per week (8 hours per night). That still leaves you with 72 hours per week to do whatever else it is you need or want to do. Even if you work 60 hours per week, that leaves you with 52 hours per week to do what you want. Even considering household responsibilities, if you can't craft some time for enjoyment out of those 52 hours, then I have no idea why not.

Our country may have some problems; that I do not question. That there are others who are "powerful", and more powerful than ME; I do not question that, either.

If you want to define yourself as a slave, then you are doing it to yourself. I, however, reject that mindset.

My life is my own, to make out of it what I will. Whatever work I've ever done, I've enjoyed it (and I've worked in Fast Food, furniture/appliance sales, waiting tables, and now as a teacher.) It's what you make of it. Every place I've ever worked, I've worked with some unhappy people who complained about everything. But I always found a way to enjoy myself and to value the job I was doing.

I'm sure some of you will come in here after me and talk about how brainwashed I am, and blah blah blah.

No, I'm just happy. I'm an optimist. I am free because I recognize that I have choices. Some of you apparently don't think you have choices for some reason. Stop blaming "the system" and start feeling gratitude in your life for what you DO have.

Sincerely,

NOT A SLAVE

Originally posted by Realtruth
reply to post by jjf3rd77

 

I know that if you take the time to watch this brilliant presentation that you will understand the "Why's" to your question.

Peace,

RT

i purchased this book in 1995, excellent read, well documented, clear and concise for a book of 600 pages.
having said that...after doing the research about the various financial systems tried by America earlier in our history, i have concluded that as bad as the federal reserve is now, the other ways of monetizing our growth, establishing economic stablility, and an economy that can handle the risks and rewards of "loaned" money, it is a financial system that has spured civilized society without resorting to the extremes of a "pure" communist state, or a "pure" plutocracy.....however, the controls that were enacted by law after the great depression of the 1930's onto the financial community, have been eroded away, and we are now close to becoming that plutocracy that will ultimately undo the balance needed for america to survive as we know it.

Your alternative is employer's who would basically turn everything into a sweatshop so they could profit insanely from. The US would like identical to China.

Obvious political bait is obvious.

I remember a time when political trolling was not tolerated on this site.

Ahhh, the good ol' days.

The following are some ways to ensure that even while you're working, you do not become a wage slave: live frugally, stay out of debt, earn money on your time, and expand your skills. To be successful means taking risks. It will help you to become strong as well as learn a living.

reply to post by jjf3rd77


debt based economy. Fiat money. Read up on it. We work for fake money whose value we have no control over. The federal reserve and world bank, IMF regulate inflation and the actual worth of money. They make the markets jump as high as they want. The housing bubble, was their doing. The loans they pushed on the public, knowing the limit was reached and surpassed, was purposeful.

EDIT:some light reading.

www.scribd.com...
thenewamerican.com...

Originally posted by jjf3rd77
Leftists always point out that making money for yourself is wage slavery because you are forced to work to pay your bills instead spending all day doing whatever you want without making money or providing for your family.

I really don't understand this type of mentality, is it the hidden communism that is in all leftists to say this? The ideal world for most leftists and some won't even admit this, but they want pure communism. Just like those of us on the right would love pure capitalism. None of those systems are even possible but it still spreads through the leftist circles like crazy probably because they are more idealistic about the world while the right tends to be more practical (sometimes).

Lucky you the nice people in this thread have answered your question for you.

Did you learn something? Tell us about your new found understanding.

The money is worthless, ya dig?

Originally posted by jjf3rd77
Leftists always point out that making money for yourself is wage slavery because you are forced to work to pay your bills instead spending all day doing whatever you want without making money or providing for your family.

That is not the reason, capitalism is wage slavery because the worker has to produce more than they are paid for in order for the capitalist to make profit.

If the workers owned the means of production, 'socialism', they would earn the full fruits of their labour.

I really don't understand this type of mentality, is it the hidden communism that is in all leftists to say this? The ideal world for most leftists and some won't even admit this, but they want pure communism. Just like those of us on the right would love pure capitalism. None of those systems are even possible but it still spreads through the leftist circles like crazy probably because they are more idealistic about the world while the right tends to be more practical (sometimes).

The goal of all left-wing ideologies is 'free association'. The difference is the path to get there, political, Marxism etc., or direct action, revolution, anarchism.

In the anarchist, Marxist and socialist sense, free association (also called free association of producers or, as Marx often called it, community of freely associated individuals) is a kind of relation between individuals where there is no state, social class or authority, in a society that has abolished the private property of means of production. Once private property is abolished, individuals are no longer deprived of access to means of production so they can freely associate themselves (without social constraint) to produce and reproduce their own conditions of existence and fulfill their needs and desires.

en.wikipedia.org...

Hmmm is capitalism more practical than socialism? I would say no. Pure capitalism is the real idealistic system that is not possible. Capitalism will always be authoritarian, because the capitalists need to protect their capital.
If there was no state system then nothing would stop the workers taking over the means of production, as they have tried to do for over 200 years.

The term communism just comes from communal ownership, which is the final stage after socialism, when we produce enough for everyone's needs and money becomes obsolete.

The only reason we have the state system we do is because of capitalism. It will never change from what it already is, the private ownership of the means of production. When a minority group owns and control the means to produce and distribute resources, and use that to make money, it creates a privileged class, known as the capitalist or ruling class. This is why the economy goes up and down, as they remove their contribution from the economy due to not making enough profit.

The left, socialism, communism, anarchism have nothing to do with government. Marxism is the political route to 'free association', and supports temporary nationalization in order to increase production until the artificial scarcity of resources caused by capitalism is reversed, and peoples needs are met. Once that goal is met the state is dismantled, and free association is accomplished. This is where the anarchists disagreed, and wanted direct action, revolution, as they correctly predicted that a revolutionary left-wing government was not possible.

A government is not left-wing unless it is working towards a socialist economy.

I hope that answers your question?

This is the illusion that is being fed to us. Do some meaningless job so that you may get money to eat..or just die! Is it not slavery? Do you really have the choice to avoid materialism altogether? Think about it.

Why would I want to promote a silly product just for the sake of earning some cash? I ought to have a choice. There are too many nonsensical work available that I prefer not to do because its meaningless. Man became a slave ever since the idea of money came into existence.


The Earth provides enough for every man's needs but not every man's greed.


Now tell that to the tribal who work and live in perfect harmony than us slaves.

Originally posted by radkrish
Man became a slave ever since the idea of money came into existence.

It's not so much money, as it is the monopoly capitalists have on the means to produce.

Money is just a tool they use to keep those at the top at the top, and those at the bottom at the bottom.

It ensures the minority ownership of the means to produce.

Makes about as much sense as denouncing unions which fight for higher wages and want more capital for their members as communists.

I've noticed one the main differences between Left and Right, is that the Right tend to assume that things have to continue to be the way they've always been. The Left tend to think more about how they can improve things.

OP, about the only way I know how to say this, is that the most important thing which any human being has, is their time. If we have to spend all of said time performing menial, manual labour (in the case of most of us) simply in order to maintain a roof over our heads and to avoid starving, then that is time which we don't have to either learn and develop our minds, or even more importantly, make whatever truly positive impact we can in the lives of others.

There are some jobs where people still get to do that, certainly; paramedics, firefighters, and teachers are three professions which come to mind. There are a lot of other jobs, however, where people have to perform boring, repetitive tasks, and they have to do so nearly alone.

I think that if people want to keep those professions where they interact with other people in a meaningful way, then they should do so; but for the menial, lonely tasks such as being a janitor and so on, we really need to look at using technology to automate those. The human that is currently performing such a job, would be much happier somewhere else.