But slave master is a slave master still.

The ruling masters treat those who work "at will for pay" like livestock when the masters demand taxes, threatening violence upon those who withhold the protection money. The livestock are being milked with every paycheck.

We definitely do not live in a system of chattel slavery, but that's only because chattel slavery is so much less efficient (for the masters) than farming those who are willing to repeat the mantra that we "are not being enslaved."

This comparison doesn't reflect the current state of affairs in the United States.

Yeah, the NSA did some shitty things that circumnavigated loopholes in the Constitution.

But you still don't realize how good you have it. Being in a Western country like the United States is spectacularly better than living conditions on many other entire continents, and sometimes many countries on others.

I agree we should fight the NSA on this. No doubt about this. But you're not convincing everyone of your point by comparing journalists and citizens to "chattel slaves"...come on now.

Journalists are still afford a lot of protections, and incidents like this leak in the United States are still outliers.

The very fact that this leak is an outrage, that we are not desensitized to this news, demonstrates the state of our society. We are afraid of it devolving, but it is presently many tiers above your implied quality of life.

There is no slavery. There is virtually no indentured slavery, named or in practice. We still have a variety of liberties the KGB never expected themselves to have, let alone fought for.

We are not anything like chattel slavery. It weakens your argument to try to argue otherwise.

Only insofar as breaking and entering is "circumventing" a "loophole" in the lock on my door.

There is no slavery. There is virtually no indentured slavery, named or in practice.

I take it you're completely unfamiliar with human trafficking and the sex trade.

Or the prison system, which the 13th specifically makes an exception for..

Where is your disagreement? I'll reiterate:

> We definitely do not live in a system of chattel slavery...

> We definitely do not live in a system of chattel slavery, but that's only because chattel slavery is so much less efficient..

This statement makes it sound like you start from the position that we would live in a system of chattel slavery if not for its lack of efficiency then you are comparing what you deem the "current form of slavery" to chattel slavery. You are, to my reading of your whole comment, specifically saying that the slavery you allege we currently labor under is as bad or worse than chattel slavery.

Money quote: "Oddo also said that workers were provided enough water, but the prisoners didn't sip it slowly enough."

Also for a sense of scope http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/07/what-do-prisoner... including this irrelevant but salacious detail: 'In 1997, a California prison put two men in solitary for telling journalists they were ordered to replace "Made in Honduras" labels on garments with "Made in the USA."'

Very hard for the sheep, you mean.

Some people would also be surprised to know that some colonists referred to themselves as slaves[0]…

[0]: http://youtu.be/3EiSymRrKI4?t=9m22s

Now, the countries you visited are probably quite a bit off from the above even though they call themselves communist, but the above most certain is communism. Speaking of visiting, I lived in one for a very long time, does that make me more qualified than you to speak on the subject?

If you're going to stand for something, at the very least identify it properly.

The only form of arguably existing slavery in the entire United States is the lack of social mobility exacerbated by a lack of education in lower income classes, which becomes both a self-fulfilling prophecy and a cycle.

Other than that - and I note slavery would be a passionate, emphatic term for that, not anything close to a literal one - there is no slavery and there are no slave masters in the United States.

I'm not singling you out, because others are doing this, but it vastly weakens your point to make statements like that. Journalists are allowed to pursue stories and leads aggressively and practice freedom of speech.

http://boingboing.net/2009/02/26/slavery-among-florid.html