08-03-2020, 08:06 AM
(08-02-2020, 02:41 PM)motox6 Wrote: I have worked in Beijing and the US.
For me it comes to do freedom.
Are the workers in China free to contract their labor or are they slaves/serfs/subjects? Some are, some aren't. So yes and no. I would say some are subjects, and some are slaves. It really depends on how productive you are from the state's point of view.
Are the workers in US free to contract their labor or are they slaves/serfs/subjects? In the US workers are not free to contract their labor as they see fit. So they are at least subjects.
For example, minimum wage laws interfere with the US citizen's right to contract their labor as they see fit. And in fact there are many thousands of other regulations restricting the US citizen, such as environmental regulations. All these regulations that are imposed on the US worker lead to them being less competitive in the world labor market.
What this also means is that the "ownership" of the US citizen's labor belongs to the state and thus the US citizen is actually a serf who begs the government for permission to work and it is government which determines the terms under which they can work.
Lastly, in the late 1800s the US Supreme Court ruled that taxes on labor are slavery. Thus, the 13th amendment not withstanding, we can see that US citizens are slaves. And if you accept the supreme court's view some Chinese citizens are slaves, though the tax policy in China changes quite often and usually the regular worker pays very little income tax, but it varies.
This is actually the opposite. The US or Europe or any other part in the democratic world you need a government to set some rules to protect workers, the environment, rights... you are not begging the government, it is a social agreement. You pay taxes they will provide education, health, control on the quality of products, protection, etc
That is what capitalism doesn't respect. If Money is the boss, you can make your workers work 20h for almost nothing, 7 days a week, you can produce food containing carcinogens, factories dumping contaminants to air or water, remove education, remove health system, even arresting based on ideology. This is not freedom, this is allowing slavery. To protect human rights you need a democratic government. If they do a bad job, you get another one.