Julio Huato said:  
> Re Rod Hay's remarks: Obviously, a human choosing between death and  
> death is a dead human.  To suggest that capitalism is indistinguishable  
> from slavery or from life in a concentration camp may have some  
> propagandistic value, but it is not a serious critique of capitalism.   
> In fact, there are very few arguments in favor of the status quo as  
> disarming as the one that implies that its victims are absolutely  
> powerless.  
  
Hard to respond to this since it has so little to do with what I said. Of course  
the form is important. Wage labour is usually better than slavery. But the  
substance is also important. It was not pure propaganda when workers complained  
of wage-slavery. What they meant was that there was no legal compulsion on their  
choice but that the economic situation meant that there was no real choice. Yes  
the legal form is important but the substance is also important --- that there  
be real alternatives --- that economic compulsion be as absent as legal  
compulsion. The situation that Micheal presented did not mean a choice between  
death and death, it meant a choice between death and twelve hour days and low  
wages, i.e., no real choice because one alternative is so bad that there is in  
fact not a likely choice.  
  
Rod Hay