Be Like Aaron
Aaron Malek writes (and gives permission to reproduce):
Message: Hi Bob,
I enjoyed your talk today in Orlando. It was a great event. I didn’t get a chance to tell you in person, but I am really enjoying your book, Choice. I bought it at the Mises 35th event in NYC and didn’t pick it up right away because I am making my way through Man, Economy, and State. Recently, however, I picked it up and just started reading it to check out the beginning, and I didn’t want to put it down. It’s so interesting and well-written. You have a real talent for precision in your writing and lectures. My wife and I told you in NYC how much we’ve learned from your History of Economic Thought course. I’m about halfway through Choice right now and just wanted to tell you how much I like it. I think it will be a book that people will be reading for many years to come.
Best regards,
Aaron
I think you should see if this guy has good taste. Here’s my book and here’s where you sign up for my History of Economic Thought courses.
Book spreads disinformation alleging that human bondage (slavery) has been abolished, which is blatantly false. There are about 40 million examples of the lack of abolition.
https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/
Wage slavery literally occurs when people are forced to work for wages against their will. Forced meaning they are not permitted to walk away. This occurred in the Belgian Congo when natives were captured and forced to work against their will but still received very small wages. See Lord Leverhulme’s Ghosts and Forced Labor in the Gold & Copper Mines by Jules Marchal.
Sticking to the standard definition of slavery, it is not competition among employers that makes typical wage workers different from slaves. It’s the ability to walk away, even into a worse situation such as starving in a gutter. Even many slaves might try to convince someone else to buy them, and some do, for example in Pakistan’s brick kilns. What makes a non-slave worker different is freedom of movement, the ability to simply walk away without needing anyone’s permission.
http://rightstrack.org/modern-day-slavery-counting-and-accounting-1
https://books.google.com.br/books?id=YqTwqI3SZbgC&pg=PA168&hl=pt-BR&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=twopage&q&f=false
This does not keep non-slaves safe from being beaten or raped by their employers. There are people who put up with those things even though they have the ability to walk away, for example in some of Bangladesh’s shrimp packaging facilities or many farms in the United States. Marxists have good reason to object to those types of things, but calling it wage slavery is confusing because most people use a much more narrow definition of slavery. A more appropriate word would be exploitation.
https://books.google.ca/books?id=L-GsCAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=blood+and+earth&hl=pt-BR&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9zeiNxYDYAhWILcAKHWOAATgQ6AEIJzAA#v=snippet&q=%22and%20if%20you%20complain%20they%20hit%20you%22&f=false
https://books.google.ca/books?id=L-GsCAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=blood+and+earth&hl=pt-BR&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9zeiNxYDYAhWILcAKHWOAATgQ6AEIJzAA#v=snippet&q=%22they%20suffer%20sexual%20assault%2C%20but%20they%27re%20not%20slaves%22&f=false
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/female-farmworkers-rape_n_3491939.html
https://www.npr.org/2013/11/05/243219199/silenced-by-status-farm-workers-face-rape-sexual-abuse
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/rape-in-the-fields/female-workers-face-rape-harassment-in-u-s-agriculture-industry/