What does all slavery, in any time of history, depend on to maintain stability between owner and slave?
Think for a moment about different examples of slavery.
What do they have in common?
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+First, the master/slave relationship is not open for negotiation—at least not by the slave.
+The master can only make limited concessions, because he must maintain complete control. If he relaxes control, he will likely lose the slave—and every slave means money for the master.
+So, money is the motivation for the slave owner.
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What is the motivation for the slave, if any?
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+Some slaves are captured and forced into slavery—no motivation.
+Some are enticed or seduced into slavery—motivated by promises of a better life, anything but the current desperation.
+But many enter into slavery by choice—that makes motivation a mystery.
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In modern America, there are two MAJOR cases of widespread slavery where money is the motivation for the slave.
Everyone is encouraged and expected to participate in insurance and retirement.
Americans sacrifice whatever it takes to pay for insurance and stash money for retirement.
This is a recent phenomenon—not universally applicable around the world and not throughout history.
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The prosperity of Americans has recently fueled their perceived need to protect what they have, out of fear that they may lose it—so they pay a lot for insurance, to ‘guarantee’ they can’t lose money, even if they lose property.
The insurance industry is the modern American slave owner, with ever-increasing power and control that makes Americans slaves to insurance.
Fear—fear of loss, and fear of illness—is the motivation for people choosing to slave over insurance payments, that master their lives now.
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The prosperity of Americans has also recently fueled their perceived need to save a lot of money for someday when they don’t have to work, or can’t work—so they pay a lot for retirement, and spend a lot of attention investing that money to protect it and make more money.
Providing for retirement has become such a universal expectation, that you can’t feel right if you don’t.
Fear—fear of less productive senior years, and fear of health crises—is the motivation to slave over storing money now for then, robbing time and resources to enjoy now and use to help others.
The other motivation for sacrificing to build a retirement portfolio is the lifelong goal to just take it easy and enjoy everything one day.
We are slaves to whatever becomes our all-consuming priority, especially for a lifetime.
Reflections on insurance.
Insurance may promise money to pay for loss of stuff, but it does not prevent the loss.
Insurance also promises to pay for damage or injuries from accidents or illness or safety violations, but insurance does not inherently make products safer or guarantee health.
Insurance is like the lottery (called the moron tax)—people voluntarily pay money, with the hope of getting back more than they paid. The odds of winning with insurance? If you lose big, you win big. Kinda odd.
Insurance has grown so big, so fast, that it has become all-consuming for Americans to pay for it, and for the government to regulate it, and that not very successfully.
Reflections on retirement.
How much of the world, and how much of history, has seen such a large percentage of the population saving money for retirement, as in modern America?
As long as the economy sustains stability until a person retires and spends his retirement, there is not much argument against it, but there is still a case for calling it slavery.
About half a century ago, Daddy observed that young people became more concerned about the benefits package of a job than the pay.
Both employers and employees must calculate the extra costs, and added compensation, before agreeing on a job.
The result—ever higher prices for products and services, so we all become slave partners.
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