"Would you prefer the return of indentured servitude or slavery instead?"

[Skidmore]

I'd seriously like one of our guys to ask this of the Republican bigmouths who continually diss labor while trying to help corporations and the wealthy shirk their responsibilities as the citizens they claim to be. I really would like this to become a mantra. Ask these guys exactly how much blood is enough for them? Low wages? No benefits? No retirement? No unemployment compensation? Are millions of homeless people enough? Hungry children? Sick and elderly people? How much is enough? Why not just auction those trapped under mountains of debt created by endless Ponzi schemes promoted as the "economy" or a "wealth society" by the Republicans?

[rurallib]

1. They will come up with a better sounding word for it

and then push for it.

[FormerDittoHead]

4. They already have an expression. "Rewarding Excellence and Achievement".

You see, achievement is so PUNISHED in our economy!

But "excellence" is the code phrase for "no inheritance taxes" or "equal tax burden on the poor" or "let the poor die in the streets outside the hospitals while I enjoy my pay per view in my private room"

[ogneopasno]

8. They do. It's called "Right to Work" legislation.

[AndrewP]

14. Bingo

[ogneopasno]

15. Welcome to DU!

[AndrewP]

19. Thanks! I appreciate it.

[ThomWV]

2. We've already got indentured servitude (college loans) and slavery is just a credit card away.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

3. Neo-feudalism: Building the drawbridge to the 13th century.

Considering how much debt the average person carries, we're halfway there anyway.

[Crazy Dave]

5. I interviewed with a guy last week who told me...

"You're not what I'm looking for", "I try to find people with no vehicle or place to live you see because I own a lot of shit hole trailers and piece of shit vehicles I let them use and take it out of their paychecks", "An employee like you would cost me more money than ones like them".

[Schema Thing]

12. His name isn't Gene, from Baton Rouge LA, is it?

[Crazy Dave]

13. Naw...in Florida

But it must be going on in a lot of other places too.

[closeupready]

6. If Republicans could bring back slavery and indentured servitude, some of them

probably would seek to do that. And I don't even think that's such a radical thing to say. It probably wouldn't be on racial lines, as it once was, but bankruptcy 'reform' was the first baby step, IMO.

Makes me angry how many Democrats supported that piece of shit legislation.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. I think we are reconstituting both in the horrific propagation of prison labor

Look at our swelling prison population, sent to corporate institutions to work at wages less than those paid in third world sweat shops. This is a national nightmare.

[Vilis Veritas]

9. One is already here, the other is being worked on...

A credit culture is merely a facade on the ugly building it creates...if a person is constantly in debt their entire lives (mortgage, car, healthcare, college loans, credit cards) then they must work to pay off the debt - this is the defintion of indentured servitude.

Indentured = 'to bind' Indentured Servitude = 'to bind in service of the debt owed'

Even if you have no major debt, rent, electricity, gas, water, etc. could be considerded debt owed...

saddlesore

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

11. And a credit culture exists because workers/employees/wage slaves ARE NOT PAID ENOUGH!

Wages did not keep pace with inflation. Period. End of story.

If they HAD, we could possibly exist in a world a little like that of my parents, where families often had one salary, paid cash for cars, sent their kids to college and did it WITHOUT relying on plastic.

[Crazy Dave]

16. Try having a house you own taken away

My house has paid for for almost five years but currently if we have any more financial or medical problems before May and we can't afford the property taxes, it gets a tax lien put on it, we get evicted and gets auctioned off just to pay the property taxes.

[Vilis Veritas]

17. More of the illusion is stripped away...

We only own something as long as those who govern say we own it.

Property taxes are a legal ruse to reclaim property after the ability to earn income has dissolved. Not only do we need shelters for health care cost, but we need to find ways to guarantee domicile rights and protect the common person's right to live on land they rightfully own. People only lease land from the government and that is a shameful way to treat someone who has paid thousands in taxes and contributed to society for decades.

Last night my wife told me about huge layoffs at her company today and they are in meetings now...I am awaiting news, nervously running scenarios to see how we will keep going if we lose her revenue.

May the coming months find only good for you and yours...:hug:

[Crazy Dave]

18. Good luck to you too

It was my wife's income that was pulling us through the past six months since I lost my business but starting next week they're forcing everyone in her position to take a 10 hr. per week cut from 40 hrs. to 30 or less. They're not cutting their hours because they need to, according to her boss they're doing it because they can and if nobody likes it they can quit.

[Gwendolyn]

21. Good luck to you!

We went through it last year. It was a tough first six months till I got myself up and running on my own, and we haven't reached our former level of living standard. If you have enough savings to last one year with the salary loss, don''t fret right away. I hope very much it isn't the case for your family though.

[Aristus]

10. Pro-slavery Democrats jumped to the Republican Party when they realized that not only

were the Dems NOT going to bring back slavery, they were actually going to ensure full civil equality for the descendants of former slaves.

Conservapukes want their slaves back awful bad, don't they?

[patrick t. cakes]

20. its already here.

the interest rate is slavery.

[Gwendolyn]

22. The republicans are working toward indentured servitude.

The dominionists want to return to biblical law, wherein indentured servitude is approved. Chattel slavery isn't. We haven't reached the extent to where impoverished people actually sell themselves to an individual and but these days will arrive. Again. Many people don't realize that this country was built on the backs of indentured servants. For a prelude of what's to come, we only have to pull out our dusty Charles Dickens novels.

edit: bad typo.

[baldguy]

23. Indentured servitude is already here.

America in indentured to Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Citibank, CapitalOne, Chase, Countrywide, GMAC, etc, etc, etc.

And we just gave them another trillion dollars for free.

[Gwendolyn]

24. Metaphorically speaking yes. But it will get much, much worse.

Please see your old testament for the gory details of what true indentured servitude is.