Introduction

David Ellerman ()
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David Ellerman: University of Ljubljana

Chapter Chapter 1 in Neo-Abolitionism, 2021, pp 1-13 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The abolition of slavery abolished not only the involuntary ownership of other people (workers) but also voluntary contractual forms of lifetime servitude. But that system of lifetime servitude was replaced by the current system of voluntary renting, hiring, employing, or leasing workers, i.e., the employment system. Hence the name “Neo-Abolitionism” for the idea of abolishing the employer–employee contract in favor of each firm being a workplace democracy. The three arguments against the human rental system are modern versions of old arguments that descend from the Reformation and Enlightenment in the Abolitionist and Democratic Movements. The first argument derives from noting that the old inalienable rights argument based on de facto inalienability of responsibility and decision-making that ruled out the long-term contract of lifetime servitude also applies against the shorter-term contract to rent oneself out. The second argument is the old labor or natural rights theory of private property (in the fruits of one’s labor) that is violated when the employer legally appropriates the positive and negative fruits of the employees working in a firm. And the third argument applies to the firm the democratic arguments against the subjection contract that alienates the rights of self-governance in favor of a democratic contract of delegation.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-62676-1_1

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