Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Modern day slavery for clothing in the Western World

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, July 4, 2014

Modern day slavery for clothing in the Western World

A 6:01m video from Truthloader.

Truthloader is a new daily YouTube show bringing investigative and citizen journalism together. We investigate the things that our audience tell us is important.

So, how is wage slavery better than classic slavery?

Capitalist indoctrination agencies in media and education would have you believe that wage slaves won their "freedom" when classic slavery was abolished. But, what kind of freedom is this if a small segment of the population owns all the tools which inventor-workers and scientific workers created in the past, and they won't let present day workers use them unless they compete to be employed by capitalists for wages in a labor market? Freedom to starve? Freedom to live under a bridge?

Think about the advantages of classic slavery for workers. If some person or corporation has purchased you in order to work on "their property", they have an investment in you and are likely to take good care of you like they do with the machinery they "own". Thus, they are likely to maintain you in good health, train you, and provide you with shelter so that they can keep exploiting the value you produce, recover their investment, and make a profit. That isn't the case with wage-slavery where they can simply and immediately replace you with someone else who is in better health and has more training purchased at their own expense.