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Comment by ars | Hacker News Reader

The only way you could say such a thing would be if you were profoundly ignorant on what indentured servitude actually is.

Maybe look it up.

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I did. You should do it too, while also trying to grasp it. I said "essentially indentured servants", which is what most of the American workforce is (not just you and your couple of privileged friends).

They earn just enough money to cover their very very basic needs. That's essentially an indentured servant.

If you don't like it, work to change it. Don't hide from the fact trying to redefine it.

"They earn just enough money to cover their very very basic needs. That's essentially an indentured servant."

Have you ever been abroad? What is your standard of not being an indentured servant?

You describe the US workforce with profoundly negative terms that would, in my opinion, fit workforce in Bangladesh or Egypt, if not Congo.

How is a Visa tied to employment _not_ indentured servitude? Isn't the power dynamic and core mechanic essentially that?

Indeed. The idea that software engineers could be in the top 85th percentile of American income and be identified as "indentured servants" is an absurd notion.

The idea that software engineers account for most of the American workforce (which is what I said) is so egocentric that I hope you just misread.

Seriously. Anyone only has to look for a second and see how many Americans are struggling day to day, paycheck by paycheck. Quick search says up to 78% of Americans do. That’s “essentially indentured servitude”.

They aren't indentured to another person, they're indentured to the laws of nature - needing to eat, find shelter, etc. When in human history has this not been the case?

Where are you living that you are getting free food and housing? Everyone I know is obligated to pay someone for those things. In that way people are "indentured" to those who can provide those things, as there is no reasonable way to procure them without money, which can only be earned by submitting oneself to another's will.

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