alt Hacker News>It’s not and it’s absolutely ahistoric to make this claim. (Not disputing that it’s a popular view in some circles.)
So, there has only ever been one type of slavery, and all slaves had the exact same set of restrictions? Yeah, nah, not with you on that.
And just because a wage slave can switch from McDonalds to Taco Bell, does not make them any less slaves.
You seem very tied to a very specific conception of slavery that only matches African-American slaves in the US. There is far more to it; it's about freedom. And if you think being poor your whole life, being allowed to switch fast food joints, never getting ahead and never having a chance to get ahead, never having any land because it's all already owned, that all that is freedom, well, you clearly have a different conception of freedom than I do, and I would never want to be subjected to yours.
Capitalism is really good at convincing people that this is the only way things can be, and freedom is the ability to sell your body and time. I reject that completely.
> there has only ever been one type of slavery
No. Nobody claimed this.
> seem very tied to a very specific conception of slavery that only matches African-American slaves in the US
I'm anchoring to that for discussions happening regarding conduct in America, yes. If minimum-wage jobs are literally slavery, then slavery–to a lot of Americans–isn't that bad, and slavery for Americans will by default mean slavery within the America context, i.e. chattel slavery.
That said, slavery has real definitions and tests, and words like subject and serf exist because people have been debating and defining these terms for millennia, regardless of Reddit or NewsMax's redefinition of these terms.
> that all that is freedom
Nobody argued this either.
> Capitalism is really good at convincing people that this is the only way things can be
Another straw man. We can raise the minimum wage and establish social guarantees without trivializing slavery.