[crdoconnor]

To determine if you really thought that not being able to choose your master was the distinguishing feature of slavery as you previously claimed.

Apparently you didn't really think that.

My point was that there's no stark dividing line between freedom and slavery and that wage slavery does indeed share many of the same features as chattel slavery.

[Jabanga]

Being dependent on someone to survive is not antithetical to freedom. What distinguishes a free society from an unfree one is that in the former, no one violates your right to your person or property, through theft, fraud, violence and threats of violence, as long as you do not violate other people's equal right to the same.

Laws prohibiting private enterprise, or mandating that individuals pay a tax on their private income, limit a person's freedom, as they involve a threat to their person, in a situation where they have not violated any other party's rights.

Freedom does not mean economic security. It does not mean empowerment. These are independent attributes.