Wage slavery

Wage slavery is a pejorative term that refers to a system that compels workers to work in order to get money to live. It may also refer to people that make a cult of work, or those who require one to work in order to be socially acceptable.

Critics who use this term, such as anarchists and communists, believe that one should have freedom to work without a boss or obligation. While the blatant exploitation of workers in various societies is an obvious and literal application of the term, its common use is with reference to capitalistic economic systems, which tend to demand a standard working week of 40 hours or above.

Defenders of the capitalist status quo sometimes argue that the term 'slavery' is inappropriate, as a citizen in a capitalist democracy can choose his or her mode of income. In fact, it is a central tenent of the free enterprise theory of capitalism that a worker's working conditions are a matter of mutual consent and open to negotiation, in accordance with the market forces of supply and demand.

It may be argued by the dissenter, however, that compliance with the dominant economic system, and those empowered by it, is nonetheless mandatory. While employees are not physically co-opted into accepting undesirable working conditions, they still have little choice if they wish to maintain a reasonable, and secure, standard of living.

Dissenters may also assert that capitalist economic systems have a tendency to commodify[?] the very things that should be most freely available in society—especially one that is technologically advanced. A pronounced lack of leisure time (to devote to personal development and relationships) is commonly the focal point of such an argument.

The classic methods advocated to avoid work within the capitalist model encourage one to invest money in property that produces income, rather than purchasing unproductive properties such as expensive cars or other nonessential items. These properties may include rentable real estate, or businesses run by employees. Such properties can produce cash which can be reinvested or, after the cash production exceeds one's desired income, the excess can be diverted to safer, less-productive, more passive purchases, or to charities.

See also

• Anarcho-capitalism
• Anarcho-syndicalism
• proletariat

External Sites

• Creating Livable Alternatives to Wage Slavery (http://www.whywork.org/)
• An economical theory (http://members.aol.com/ojatex/wageslve.htm)
• Special situations in USA (http://irregulartimes.com/saipan)