Ethical Slavery

Vorpy

"Regardless of how well a person is treated, kept or sustained, the ownership of a human being can never be ethical."

No matter how you look at it, being owned by another person, whether they paid money or goods for you, or you were given to another person as property, is generally a horrible thing. No matter how many benefits or rules you can add to it, anything with "free will" or is a human being being sold as a pet, property or a laborer can end up in horrible situations.

Is there any way slavery can be ethical, regulated or beneficial to both parties? Can selling yourself to the will and whim of the person who bought you possibly benefit you in any way? How bad is the term "slavery" for itself?

Bob

If the person gives you everything you want in return for your labor, possibly, but at that point, you could argue that it's more akin to employment via bartering.

Nova

• Is there any way slavery can be ethical, regulated or beneficial to both parties? Can selling yourself to the will and whim of the person who bought you possibly benefit you in any way? How bad is the term "slavery" for itself?

  
  

  
  

  How about if you are completely incapable of caring for yourself?

BonSequitur

Any person who'd be rationally willing to sell oneself into slavery would clearly be under enormous pressure from something (For example, poverty or unemployment), because it's such a bad deal - you get to work for the rest of your life for someone, while they pay a single lump sum. It's unlikely that sum would even come close to your expected lifetime earnings (It's not advantageous to buy a slave for $1000 that you expect will keep working for 20 years, when you can instead pay a laborer $50 a year to do the same job), and furthermore the intangible loss and opportunity cost of slavery would make it even more of a bad deal. Therefore, a situation where someone willingly enters that sort of agreement is very unlikely, unless the alternative is very, very bad, and the person is coerced by circumstance (Thus rendering his consent dubiously valid anyway).

[This assuming economically motivated slavery. Slavery as a 'lifestyle' is another issue...]

Bob

It could be some sort of weird fetish.

CommandoDude

The term you're looking for is "Indentured servitude."

^ Could be? Rule 36 man.

Vorpy

Well I am not touching the whole "lifestyle" slavery part yet since I can't think of an argument to counter human trafficking and a human slavery monopoly. Going to the mall to buy yourself a loanwife or something, while the person being bought has no say on who they are bought by would be pretty horrible, depending on the circumstance. Then comes the forgery of the certificates of ownership to prove that you have legally purchased a person to be your best friend/sex slave/fetish appeaser/family surrogate.

Tnu1138

for soem reason the Loanwife scenario made me think of a good alternative. Companions a la Firefly.

Icalasari

Slavery could be good if the owner was a good person and the alternative for the slave was much worse, I bet

There would still be far better situations, but in that specific instance, well, I'm thinking that slavery would be more ethical

Hatter

If the slave in question has earned being a slave - by committing crimes or not paying his debts - then I see no problem with having him as a slave, so long as he is ethically treated while he works off his debts to society.

Icalasari

^ I think the main issue is whether the slavery itself means one is not being ethically treated, even if they are in all other ways (although, as my earlier post implies, I think that slavery can be ethical under the right circumstances)