Wage slavery: What is it, how does it happen, and are you in it?
What is wage slavery?
Wage slavery is a term used when a person's or group's freedom is tied to their wages. They have autonomy and freewill, but the economic system and employment structure they are in aren't freeing at all.
Living paycheck to paycheck, having no free time apart from recovering from work on the weekend. Their job has no systems in place for growth or advancement.
Think of it like a prison without walls, but you have to keep going back to your cell if you want shelter and food.
Sure, people are free to choose their employment and negotiate terms, but that isn't the case when you have no money or flexibility in your current financial and lifestyle situation.
Wage slavery is freewill with economic chains.
How does it happen, and can you avoid it?
Wage slavery can happen in accordance with lifestyle creep, or alternatively known as lifestyle inflation.
Where one gets a pay raise or bonus and spends that on items, subscriptions, or upgrades to one's lifestyle but doesn't realize the hidden costs to maintain that item or service. Over a period of time, all these purchases demand servicing, maintaining, and this costs extra to sustain it.
An extreme example would be installing a pool. One would think that all you have to pay for is the installation, and boom, lifestyle upgrade. But then comes along hidden costs to sustain the pool, with water rate costs, maintenance fees, additional products to maintain the pool, cleaning services. Items you need to purchase in addition to the pool, like water sports items, waterproof outside chairs, an outside pool umbrella for shade, and electrical costs to keep the pool temperature warm.
One purchase or decision becomes a massive financial undertaking, resulting in spending more money and seasonal costs to maintain that lifestyle of being a pool owner.
This goes for anything from a pool to a new subscription service to changing the location where one lives.
The trick is not to spend more when you have more money but rather to save more when you get a pay raise. Never let that money go into your bank account; send it straight to savings or acquire assets like stocks or your government saving program.
Are you a victim of wage slavery?
The easy questions to ask are:
Are you living paycheck to paycheck?
Do you have emergency savings?
Do you have savings to sustain yourself for 3 months without employment?
Are you debt-free?
If the answers to these questions scared you, then your desk at work might be more like a prison cell. So let's rectify this situation and set you free from those chains.
First, you have to find out where all your money is going: rent, bills, food, money payments, services, debt? Whatever it may be, first, you must live debt-free to be free of wage slavery.
For myself, this took me over 5 years to pay off fully. This didn't mean I was solely focused on paying off my debt; no, no, no. I was setting aside a percentage of my pay for debt, another percentage for savings and asset accumulation. I was sacrificing luxury items, subscription services, and transportation. I got rid of my car and walked and used public transportation everywhere.
It wasn't easy doing it, but now I'm free, free to choose and do as I please. If I lost my job, I would have more than three months to find another one. And in fact, I probably would change professions. That is what happens when you are free of wage slavery. Your choices and options become infinite.
You can dream and plan a new life on a whim if you so please. Once you are free of this freewill employment wage slavery, you have time to work on yourself, better yourself, and improve the world around you and your very life.
If you want to dive deeper into better systems to become free from your employers grasp, then Nischa from YouTube has a wonder video where she also say you need to.
Know your how much you need to live
Work towards a quick emergency fund
Pay off debt
Start putting money into a government saving program
Start working towards a bigger emergency fund
Aim for a pay-rise or side hustle (invest in yourself)
Start investing, and/or high interest accounts
Evaluate opportunity cost, what's important to you.
If you are in wage slavery, don't fret; there is hope at the end of the paycheck. All it takes is a little time, budgeting, and a reason to leave the dreaded end-of-the-week or month financial struggles behind.
Because once you realize that you do, in fact, have free will beyond your employer's demands, you have the ability to say no, to give them the middle finger if you so please.
That is true freedom, freedom to go and become whoever you want to be.
