I can’t stop working. Even if my retirement accounts continue to exist for the three more decades it will take me to begin drawing from them, I have no way to know and absolutely no trust that they quantity of money will be sufficient to support me.
The bank can take pretty much anything I own if I lose my job and fall behind, which severely curtails my ability to do anything except exactly what I’m told at work.
What’s the major difference between this and serfdom, except that my current lords don’t even have to supply me with food and shelter directly?
They’re already on the way to doing that. The slow striping of worker’s rights won’t have a natural end until everyone but the elites are serfs.
I can’t stop working. Even if my retirement accounts continue to exist for the three more decades it will take me to begin drawing from them, I have no way to know and absolutely no trust that they quantity of money will be sufficient to support me.
The bank can take pretty much anything I own if I lose my job and fall behind, which severely curtails my ability to do anything except exactly what I’m told at work.
What’s the major difference between this and serfdom, except that my current lords don’t even have to supply me with food and shelter directly?
Some are actually trying to bring company towns back. In some countries, Walmart pays their employees, in whole or in part, with gift cards.
In the US, Walmart pays their employees by teaching them to file for food stamps and then keeping their pay depressed enough to qualify.
Bonus, those employees use those food stamps at Walmart.