This country can't prosper without "wage suppression" to near slavery levels

[HAB911]

Last edited Sun Nov 13, 2022, 12:17 PM - Edit history (1)

Migrant workers already leaving Florida’s Hurricane Ian cleanup. They came to work after the disaster. But many are struggling to make ends meet.

CAPE CORAL — Joel Lopez was prepared to spend another year sleeping in his car. His family was back in southeast Mexico. The work was here, in the waterside homes thick with the smell of mold begging to be torn off walls and backyards where uprooted lanai screens wilted into swimming pools.

Lopez, who does not have permanent legal status, had driven to Fort Myers from Houston. It was the latest stop on a career of chasing natural disasters across the United States.

In his experience, he could make far more money cleaning the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ian than he could in a regular construction job in Arkansas, where he’d first landed in the country 10 years ago. The payoff would be worth another 12 months of back pain.

https://www.tampabay.com/hurricane/2022/11/11/migrant-workers-leave-florida-ian-cleanup/

[thomski64]

1. ..We no longer own slaves..

...we rent them.. per diem..

[Igel]

10. We "rented" the poor back in the day.

There was a difference then. And that difference hasn't really changed concerning then, and is valid today--esp. since there are still slaves in some countries (illegal, but it happens ... more often in some than others).

If enough free men (or women) don't want to work at a place, options are to raise wages or find efficiencies or buy slaves. That last one is pretty much ruled out, as a lot of employers have learned.

Having bad options is not the same as having no options.

[brooklynite]

2. Slavery has a significant meaning...don't mangle it.

Low pay for a no. You can walk away from isn’t slavery.

[HAB911]

3. It is to me

[Solomon]

6. And American slavery has a particularly significant and peculiar meaning.

It was slavery on steroids compared to other versions of slavery across the world and history.

[Progressive dog]

4. Not true

Having to sleep in a car is not slavery.

[dlk]

5. Discrimination is profitable

Profits over people is why the minimum wage is excruciatingly low and why women don’t have equal rights. It’s all about the money.

[stopdiggin]

7. not comfortable with calling this slavery

Exploitation? Maybe - and even that kind of depends on a given perspective and parameters. But are we going to now define all low wage labor as slavery?

The danger of straying too far from a standard definition (with this topic or any other) - is that you have then rendered the term meaningless, or incapable of definition. In this case - I think that is a disservice, to the real (and ongoing) case of 'slavery.'

There does not seem to be any 'involuntary' servitude involved in the example provided. Any more than your average employee at a big box store. Your 'broad brush' is coloring in far too much territory. And insulting a lot of people (and memories) along the way.

[HAB911]

8. I like "wage suppression" to slavery levels

I'll try that

[stopdiggin]

9. this man quit a job

(with an established contractor?), in order to pursue greater advantage, and more money, on his own. About the farthest thing from indentured .. ? You need to pick another exhibit to hang your hat on. Or maybe just drop the 'labor is slavery' thesis.