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anotherfadjs | 12 years ago

At least they have jobs.

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EliRivers|12 years ago

Not as we define them. As we define it, a job is an exchange; the employee puts in work and they get back money and the like. What they have (as described in the article) is a legal requirement to be at their assigned place of work and do their assigned task, without getting back money and the like. That's more akin to slavery.

kijin|12 years ago

It seems that a lot of workplaces don't even have any work for the assigned workers to do (e.g. factories are out of raw materials), and no salary to pay, so the "employees" just go freelancing elsewhere. This is worse than slavery. With slavery, at least there's a general expectation that the master will feed his slaves.

North Koreans are getting the worst possible form of communism (indentured servitude in a micromanaged economy) and the worst possible form of capitalism (must earn your own survival, no safety nets whatsoever) at the same time. That's crazy.

crusso|12 years ago

You could say the same thing about African slaves in the Antebellum US.