I was taught that factory workers in the north had it worse than slaves
In Marx's "Theories of Surplus Value" which he never published while he was alive, but was instead compiled from his notes by Kautsky, and then later Riazanov, he called out 1700s reactionary anti-capitalists like Linguet who made these kinds of arguments.
Linguet however is not a socialist. His polemics against the bourgeois-liberal ideals of the Enlighteners, his contemporaries, against the dominion of the bourgeoisie that was then beginning, are given—half-seriously, half-ironically—a reactionary appearance. He defends [...] slavery against wage-labour.
"Wage slave" is the modern equivalent. I get the point is to emphasize how deeply exploitative low-wage work is, but my boss can't cut off my foot if I don't show up.
yeah the term "wage slave" is certainly an exaggeration that minimizes slavery. I would point out that even Frederick Douglass used the term, but this alone does not legitimize it. It became popular because it's short, to the point, sounds almost poetic (assonance), and gets at the heart of the coercive element of capitalism (you sell your labor power, or you become homeless and starve). But yes, it's certainly not the most nuanced or sensitive thing to say.
In Marx's "Theories of Surplus Value" which he never published while he was alive, but was instead compiled from his notes by Kautsky, and then later Riazanov, he called out 1700s reactionary anti-capitalists like Linguet who made these kinds of arguments.
(Linguet was guillotined by the Jacobins lol)
The kind French Jacobins would have guillotined everyone here
"Wage slave" is the modern equivalent. I get the point is to emphasize how deeply exploitative low-wage work is, but my boss can't cut off my foot if I don't show up.
yeah the term "wage slave" is certainly an exaggeration that minimizes slavery. I would point out that even Frederick Douglass used the term, but this alone does not legitimize it. It became popular because it's short, to the point, sounds almost poetic (assonance), and gets at the heart of the coercive element of capitalism (you sell your labor power, or you become homeless and starve). But yes, it's certainly not the most nuanced or sensitive thing to say.