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Comment by roarktoohey | Hacker News Reader

Indentured servitude is a pesky problem that keeps resurfacing in various forms though modern history.

Indentured servitude (defined by the UN to be slavery) is nothing like taking on debt to go to college.

Two components of indentured servitude is that they do not permit you to leave your work until you have paid the debt, and secondly that they charge you so that you can never escape your debt. A final onerous part of real indentured servitude is that debt can be passed to your children, and many generations can be born into slavery and never leave it. [Source: Disposable People]

[edited to remove bankruptcy reference. Apparently it doesnt help]

Student loan debt cannot be expunged via bankruptcy in the US.

I agree except for the generous bankruptcy laws part. Student loan debt is not dischargeable through bankruptcy.

While I certainly don't think college debt is quite indentured servitude (you certainly can leave work while still in debt), it's worth noting that US bankruptcy laws are specifically not generous with student loan debt. It's very rare to have it forgiven. Worse, if the loans have a cosigner, the debt can continue to harass them, and they'll typically be a family member.

Of course, it's not going to follow for generations, so you're right about the situation being substantially better than indentured servitude. But the metaphor isn't too far off the mark if its context is toned down a bit.

To say that it's the same is to say that any debt is indentured servitude.

Prisons making you borrow money would be indentured servitude. College loans is taking a loan.

There could be a case made for credit cards being indentured servitude, due to their unreasonably high interest rate and the fact that they entrap you by just issuing them. Far more so than college loans.

Credit card debt is dischargeable.

Actually the debt of indentured servitude was generally not passed on to children. That varies though between different places and times, and is not a key to indentured servitude. Not necessarily that you cannot escape due to the interest (though that was common). They key is the first part, that you cannot leave your work until the debt is paid.

Note that it _is_ common, not was.

I don't know what you're talking about, but it's not indentured servitude as the term was used in America. Indentured servitude was generally for a fixed period of time. The first sentence of the wiki article: "Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture."

You could probably find millions of people, including me, who would gladly trade their student loans for several years of indentured servitude.

I quoted my source above: Disposable People by Kevin Bales. It discusses 6 case studies of modern day slavery: sex slavery in thailand, kidnapping for farm workers in Brazil, "old timey" slave ownership in Mauritania, and indentured servitude in India and Pakistan.

My history is a little shaky on old American slavery, but I'm pretty sure that a large number of indentured servants brought to colonies in the Caribbean were disposable: they were worked til they died and never managed to leave their servitude.

You are badly misinformed. Indentured servitude is a contract to serve for a fixed term in exchange for large up-front compensation. It is not a financial debt but a performance obligation, and cannot be inherited.

I have stated my source in another comment. Indentured servitude is of course used a various points in history to refer to different things. But I am not "badly misinformed" - I have read a decent amount about modern day slavery, if you believe me to be wrong, please state a source. Mine, as stated above, was a book on slavery by the head of the "Free the Slaves" organization.

You are nonetheless mistaken. If "indentured servitude" is being used in that way, it is being misused as a tool of the slaveholders to whitewash their actions. By joining them in that misuse, you have conceded your own mind and become a willing collaborator. This matters: tyrants gain power by controlling minds, not bodies.

You misunderstand me. I am not whitewashing anything. Indentured servitude is slavery. It describes one particular form of slavery, common in some parts of the world. I don't know where you get the idea that I'm saying it is tolerable or OK.

What I am saying is that college debt from middle class 1st world adults is not indentured servitude.

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