What distinguishes slave labor from free labor? Under slave labor the boss wholly determines the compensation of the worker. If he wishes to merely grant him or her enough to survive (in order to protect his own investment) he can. If he wishes to be extremely generous and to indulge them (which some slave masters did, especially for their favorite slaves) he can. Slave labor is therefore not defined by a laborer merely receiving a subsistence, it is defined by being entirely at the mercy of the master, regardless of what you receive. If you are taken care of handsomely but you have no say in the matter, you remain nothing more than a slave.

a worker is not the slave of the person who employs them if their labor  must correspond to some determinate value that is decided by outside forces rather than the whim of the employer. In a free society value is determined by the objective realities of the market. Who possesses more dignity? a very well kept slave or a free worker making a subsistence? For those with no regard for liberty, or who define liberty as comfort, it is the slave.  For the believer in liberty it is the worker.  The worker has a future, and one that he can himself determine by his own decisions. The slave does not.

If the state determines prices and wages it becomes the slave master; with the potential to be as cruel a master as any, as history shows us.   here…