I just don't think this argument really tracks. If we were hunter/gatherers, we would have no choice but to hunt and gather for food. No it's not consensual, you have to do it, but would we really say we were being coerced? By who? Nature?
You can say there is bad stuff about Capitalism, and better ideas or systems we should do instead, without this coercion claim.
While I agree with the sentiment, saying that it's been hundreds of years in the making is just wrong. If anything, labor rights are at historic highs, and that's been centuries in the making.
Not only that, before we can even "freely" sell ourselves, we, or someone, has to pay for our preparation/education, because why pay for a slave's training when you can charge them?
We are slaves. We just don't like in a big plantation. No. We live anywhere where there are "jobs". No jobs means we become homeless eventually. And who has these "jobs"? The rich assholes do. Just like we were forced to work for their forefathers in plantations, now we work for them in "jobs". The job is basically a metaphorical plantation.
Freedom to work at a selection of under paying, exploitative places that will take from you every ounce of effort, strength, and time, so that you can "earn" a living... Because nobody is going to give you a living; you're not worth anything unless you work and earn your life.
Freedom to choose from a number of ways to live, how to travel from place to place, either by buying an overpriced automobile, and paying for every interaction any professional repair person has with it... Or you can choose to pay to ride transit, where you have to conform to their schedule and if you're late, you're left behind... And you get to pay for the privilege. Or you could, IDK, walk? But wait, it's MILES away from your home, because it's in a commercial zone and you live in a residential zone. We couldn't possibly mix commercial and residential. Tsk tsk. That's just not okay.
You can also choose to buy food at the grocery store where the lowest prices are not in the shareholders best interest, so we'll do everything we can to convince you that you're getting the best deals by offering lower prices on your food, as the quality slips away, and products are shrunken down to the point where it's almost not worth buying it anymore.
But because you have been given a choice, you are "free" and not a slave. Clearly.
..... Late stage capitalism is just slavery with extra steps. They're making the slaves figure their own shit out, rather than give them food and a place to sleep.... Just, here's your barter (pay) for today, go figure out where to sleep and what to eat on your own fucking time.
If you want peace and safety, you need to participate in society. That means paying taxes and voting in elections. Too many people only did the paying taxes bit, and now our society's fucked.
While I agree that wages, employee treatment and benefits stand to be much better, Im having trouble understanding the argument. At the end of the day someone needs to do work to get anything
Not saying op is wrong but why is there so much negativity on Lemmy? I agree capitalism is not a great system but I feel like this horse has been dead for a while and we are still beating it.
This community is incredibly pessimistic. I know the world is in a hard place already, but I don't want to be reminded of it every 5 posts on c/all. I have taken to block multiple communities because of it.
And the only ones supposedly fighting for our rights ARE EXTREME LEFT WING LOONEYS, 14YO TANKIES MIXED WITH CORRUPT CARREER NARCO POLITICIANS, DICTATORS AND GUERILLA COCAINE GENERALS
The argument that the employment contract is not a consensual transaction is a weak argument against capitalism. The employment contract is voluntary by any normal juridical standard. Even if this difficulty could be overcome, it would only necessarily imply a UBI not abolishing capitalist property relations. A much stronger argument is the inalienable rights argument based on the factual inalienability of responsibility