Is there an advantage to being a slave rather than a minimum
wage worker, who lives on a subsistence salary? A slave is a piece of property
that needs to be maintained, just like a car or tractor. Hence from a health
point of view, the situation of the slave is better than that of many workers
in America, who still struggle with health costs, despite the advances of
Obamacare. A slave like a pet also has to be fed and treated with plenty of
TLC, otherwise it will become squirrelly and indolent. Repeated punishments and
beatings have not been found to increase the effectiveness of slaves. Minimum
wage workers, however, require little TLC. If a worker in a fast food joint
doesn’t perform his job, there’s always a replacement waiting in the wings. Of
course, freedom is the one thing that slaves don’t have. Everyone talks about
freedom and dreams of it, but once it arrives its benefits fall far short of
the promise that was once held out. Sure it’s nice to be free, but freedom like
independence means that you end up having to fend for yourself. It’s nice to be
free if you can hack it, but if you end up having a hard time in an
increasingly competitive marketplace, then you may want think about
relinquishing your freedom. In general, when you create a spread sheet and
list all the pluses and minuses of freedom versus slavery, you’re going to find
that it’s a very close call. Would you rather be enslaved by a relatively nice
owner, say a Thomas Jefferson type, or work for McDonald’s for the rest of
your life?
