as someone who has spoken English from ~2 years old, I have never heard that definition. Slavery has always been a person who was forever forced to do what their master told them to. Are interns/apprentices slaves? After all, they work for a day for even less than a day's worth of food.

There is a lengthy wikipedia page on "wage slavery", which has a long history, even if it is not part of the currently accepted definition of slavery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery

"Similarities between wage labour and slavery were noted as early as Cicero in Ancient Rome, such as in De Officiis."

If you need the wage from your labour to feed and house yourself, such that you are completely dependent on your employer, how is that functionally different to slavery?

Unpaid internships are increasingly considered immoral for reasons that you identify - many people literally cannot afford to take such an internship, so cannot gain this experience.

Yeah, no, that's not the definition of slavery.

IS this really the definition of slavery here on HN? Pathetic. I've been supporting nonprofits engaged in anti-slavery issues - I will ABSOLUTELY stop if this is what is considered slavery. Such pathetic misuse of language.

"Work for me or starve" seems like slavery to me.

I didnt work for "you" and I didnt starve.

Guess why

Do you live in one of these cities in China?