>With the major difference that these days a lot of people get to choose their employers.

That was true for many in the feudal times too, they could shop around and pledge their allegiance to one or another feudal lord, and even be given a plot of land to cultivate (as long as the lord got their share of the results).

If anything, the feudal lords left them even more to their own devices, and demanded even less of their produce (like 10% was common).

If it wasn't for the lack of technology and modern conveniences and frequent wars and dangers from outside, it would be a pretty good lifestyle...

I can't tell if you're trying to be serious here. It was in no way a good life to be a serf. Life was literally nasty, brutish, and short - even putting aside armed conflict and external dangers.

Lords would extract what they could. A huge part of life for serfs was figuring out how to survive without producing an easily-extractable surplus (because of it could be extracted, it usually would be extracted).

>It was in no way a good life to be a serf. Life was literally nasty, brutish, and short - even putting aside armed conflict and external dangers.

That's the "old wives tale" version.

Life wasn't particularly nasty or brutish, modern scholarship has re-evaluated the Middle Ages, and the "short" part was similar to 19th century levels due to infant mortality (and otherwise similar to 19-century standards), and has little to do with serfdom per se, and all to do with lack of 2-3 things we take for granted (running water, sewage systems, understanding of microbes, etc.).

Heck, even their vacation time was better: https://www.reuters.com/article/idIN2854000020130829

>Lords would extract what they could

For most of history, there was a certain standard. Lords didn't take "all they could", but closer to 10% or so. If they got too greedy the people could align with another lord, and that would mean trouble. Medieval history has lots of such examples.

>even putting aside armed conflict and external dangers.

Which I already covered:

"If it wasn't for the lack of technology and modern conveniences and frequent wars and dangers from outside, it would be a pretty good lifestyle..."

> frequent wars

The vast majority of wars in the Middle Ages would be considered mere skirmishes by modern standards.

Yes, and in many case the 'civilians' were not affected, it was mostly professional armies and mercenaries.

The "popular/people's army" (armies of common folk) come later (though, of course, we have examples of it in the ancient world too, as well as examples where common folk to the short end of the stick during conflict. It was just not that common in feudal times).

And if you are willing to buck the system completely, which as you point out is not compulsory as it was before, you can leave and go live off the land. Unfortunately almost everyone has lost the skill to do this.

> And if you are willing to buck the system completely, which as you point out is not compulsory admit was before, you can leave and go live off the land. Unfortunately almost everyone has lost the skill to do this.

Huh? Whose land? The frontier has been closed for a long time.

Also not much land to freely live off of, unless you have the wealth to secure some already.