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Comment by thaumasiotes | Hacker News Reader

> We have historical proof that companies won't even pay their employees with real money unless the government mandates that they do so.

Well, we have historical proof that nearly all companies do pay with real money in the total absence of such government mandates. We definitely don't have proof of the proposition you claim, which is immediately falsified by the most cursory examination of history.

Note also that scrip is denominated in currency and accepted at par. The problem was generally not that you had a lot of scrip and couldn't spend it; the problem was that the company store charged high prices. But the store charged the same prices whether you were spending company scrip or currency.

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Someone will want to enslave people. This has been so for almost all of history for sufficiently large civilizations. In general humans exploit one another when they can get away with it. In the absence of government/societal regulations slavery will occur and thus the “market” minimum wage is 0.

Government regulations can be good and they can be bad. In enlightened countries enough good ones are in place to prevent a minimum wage of 0.

> In the absence of government/societal regulations slavery will occur

Slavery cannot occur in the absence of governmental and societal regulations, because in that case there's nothing stopping the slaves from leaving. Any such obstacle would be a governmental or societal regulation.

> and thus the “market” minimum wage is 0.

Slaves are paid much more than zero wages. In every culture, a slave in a good position is much better off economically than a freeman in a bad position.

… because in that case there's nothing stopping the slaves from leaving

Obviously this is false and you can find examples of people being enslaved in countries where it is outlawed. There are plenty of examples of an enslaved person being prevented from escaping even in the presence of laws prohibiting slavery. It’s as if you don’t understand human behavior.

You have a fanciful notion of slavery and what it entails. In another thread you bring up cases where the enslaved had it “good” and act as if this is normative in such circumstances. I am thankful views such are yours are no longer acceptable to most people. Within in your views on this topic one will not find common sense or decency.

That you find it worth your time to try to convince people of the benefits of slavery says much about you and nothing about slavery.

Wait until you meet the neo monarchists.

> There are plenty of examples of an enslaved person being prevented from escaping even in the presence of laws prohibiting slavery. It’s as if you don’t understand human behavior.

Or perhaps it's as if I'm labeling that prevention a "societal regulation". Go look at my comment again.

You are being deliberately obtuse. There are people who are enslaved in societies where slavery is illegal and, as a whole, considered evil by a very large majority of the population. People are sometimes kept in bondage by force and that force does not come from the government or by the society at large or by that societies views or consent. Of course, all of this is obvious and thus you are clearly trolling. If not, then you are a sad example.

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