Servitude.

Are We Just Indentured Servants With Extra Steps?

By definition, “indentured servitude refers to a contract between two individuals, in which one person worked not for money but to repay an indenture, or loan, within a set time period. … Indentured servitude was not slavery as individuals entered contracts of their own free will.”

The contract would typically supply housing, food, clothing—the basic necessities. Rarely, the master would even supply healthcare.

Now fast-forward to today.

Let me just say—

—student loans.

But have you ever taken a look at the United States Debt Clock? 👀

If you ever need something to make you feel both better and worse about your situation, check that out!

And if you’re not a collegegoer, consider how your job most likely offers you healthcare for a fee, which is then less money you earn.

You work “of your own free will,” just like an indentured servant!

Okay, obviously, I understand that modern employment is not literally indentured servitude. You can quit. You can change jobs. You can become self-employed. You can technically walk away.

But here's the thing:

How free is a choice when the alternative is potentially losing your housing, healthcare, food, transportation, or ability to survive?

Because for a lot of us, we're essentially trading our labor for the basic necessities of existence.

And don't even get me started on the standard cost of living and how drastically we, as a nation, fail to subsidize the things people actually need to stay alive.

That's why universal healthcare is such a huge deal.

You shouldn't have to tie your medical well-being to your ability to work.

What happens when the machine—you—breaks down?

Because humans are machines, apparently. Very poorly maintained ones, at that.

We work until we're exhausted. We work while we're sick. We work while we're grieving. We work through mental health crises. We work through chronic stress and burnout and whatever fresh hell the modern workplace has invented this quarter.

And when the machine finally breaks?

Well, hopefully you had good insurance.

Inflation is the slow drip that kills us all.

The closer we get to financial freedom, the more expensive everything becomes, which means we have to work longer to get there.

Retirees can barely afford to live out their final years, sometimes having to choose between living life and staying alive.

Maybe they couldn't afford to adequately fund their retirement because they were too busy living.

Paying for emergency surgery.

Having kids.

Helping their parents.

Trying to maintain a semblance of joy outside of the workforce.

Maybe they couldn't stay at one company for 30 years because the job market changed underneath them. Maybe their benefits disappeared. Maybe they were pushed into contract work or temp agencies where workers could be paid less and offered fewer protections.

Or maybe they did everything “right.”

They saved.

They invested.

They worked hard.

They planned for retirement.

And then—

BOOM.

Hurricane.

Cancer.

Divorce.

A sick spouse.

A child who needs help.

A grandchild who needs raising.

Life.

Because that's the thing nobody tells you about financial planning:

You have to plan for the possibility that life will happen to you.

And life is fucking expensive.

The cost of housing rises. Utilities rise. Groceries rise. Insurance rises. Interest rates rise. Annual bills quietly creep upward while your paycheck sits there pretending it has any idea what's happening.

I've seen someone's rent go from $700 to $1,300 with barely a month to figure out what the hell they were supposed to do.

Budgeting becomes damn near impossible when the numbers you're budgeting around refuse to stay still.

And then we're told:

Just save more.

Just invest.

Just stop buying coffee.

Just work harder.

Just get a better job.

As if everyone isn't already doing the fucking math.

We are in the middle of a class war.

We're teetering on the edge of revolutionizing our capitalistic economy or simply learning how to become even more efficient little workers inside of it.

Maybe this is the Age of Aquarius.

Maybe we're entering an era where we have more information than ever before, where more people can see the systems around them clearly enough to question them.

Maybe we're finally looking at the machinery and asking:

Who is this actually built for?

Because we're surrounded by contradictions.

We're told we're free, but survival costs money.

We're told to prioritize our health, but healthcare can bankrupt us.

We're told to save for retirement, but the cost of living makes saving increasingly difficult.

We're told to have children, but childcare can cost as much as housing.

We're told to buy homes, but housing can be wildly unaffordable.

We're told to work hard, but working hard doesn't necessarily guarantee stability anymore.

And while we're trying to figure all of that out, the forests are burning, the oceans are filling with poison, racism is still alive and well, and somehow Florida continues to exist as though God has abandoned the simulation.

If it's not the rich, it's the racists.

If it's not the racists, it's the burning forests and poison seas.

If it's not the burning forests and poison seas, it's another fucking bill.

Capitalism is a comorbidity.

Maybe the question isn't whether we're literally indentured servants.

Maybe the question is whether a society can call itself free when so many people are working primarily to afford the privilege of continuing to work.

Only time will tell if we've managed to flounder our way into the worst timeline.

Cheers.