Capitalism Is Slavery - The Chains Are Just Debt Now
How bills, interest, credit scores, and price opacity trap ordinary people in a system that never lets them stop.
“Capitalism is slavery” makes people pause because it hits a nerve. In the U.S. model, control over ordinary people looks less like direct force and more like a highly engineered financial system. You don’t need literal chains. Bills, interest rates, credit scores, and bankruptcy rules can lock people in place on their own.
The key isn’t “being poor.” The key is “not being allowed to stop.” Most people aren’t at zero income. They’re pinned down by structural costs that require constant motion. Rent, insurance, car payments, mortgages, medical bills, credit card interest. If one piece breaks, everything can cascade. On the surface it’s framed as personal responsibility and financial planning. In reality it’s a cost structure that pressures people into compliance and steady output.
The first layer of this system is price opacity. Why is U.S. healthcare so often not clearly priced upfront, but billed afterward? Because transparent pricing creates choice. When choice exists, fewer people spend, fewer people fall into debt, and the system loses one of its strongest lock-in mechanisms. Healthcare isn’t the only example. College costs are spread across tuition, fees, course charges, housing, and add-ons that families struggle to calculate in advance. Credit cards, insurance, and financial contracts are loaded with complex terms that bury the real cost inside professional language. If the price is hard to see, the risk is hard to see. If the risk is hard to see, debt becomes “normal.” That’s not disorder. It’s a repeatable business model.
The second layer is debt as a control interface. In a highly specialized industrial society, money isn’t just a tool for buying things. It’s the core medium used to organize production and distribution. Whoever controls money flows controls people’s room to move. Credit scores determine whether you can rent, borrow, or even enter certain jobs. Interest rates determine how much freedom you have over the next decade. Bankruptcy rules determine whether debt can be cut off. Student loans are often difficult to discharge through bankruptcy, which turns them from simple financing into long-term restraint. Future income gets pulled forward and traded for “opportunity” today. It’s sold as freedom, but it functions like contractual constraint.
Sorry to put this paywall here, sometimes, I do this, just hoping for some support. I will do more free articles in the future. Thank you for understanding.
