Modern slavery is a massive problem. There are more slaves today than there were at the peak of slavery in the United States.
It is a strange side effect of US-exceptionalism that projects a shameful-pride that US slavery was the biggest and the worst slavery and they are the heroes for ending slavery, when none of these are remotely true.
What's perhaps worse - most Americans don't even know it exists. I didn't until a foreign person with experience with it opened my eyes to it, and I did more research. Everyone I happen to tell had no idea prior...
Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, Hindus in Pakistan, Christians in Pakistan, Dalits in India, tribal communities in India, migrant workers from Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh in Malaysia, Indigenous Brazilians, Afro-Brazilians, undocumented migrants in United States, South Asians in Middle East, Africans in Middle East (kafala system).
My place of employment is trying for a 12h/3d with the remaining 4h given for free. Their main objective is to have workers on the floor 24/7 with no overlapping shifts. This is a nightmare scenario on logistics and circadian rhythms if you don't drive but benefits for having free week days. Also, it would benefit the employer too regarding managing global operations more efficiently due to time zone differentials.
I think the Greeks, like Italians have been fucked by the previous generations living way above their means and forcing younger ones to deal with the problems they caused.
I am not sure about Greek examples, but in Italy, among the bad things done just to ensure another term for a given political party, I hate "baby pensioni" [1] more than anything else. My 90-years old grandmother still benefits from this and after working until 47 she was allowed to retire with a decent pension (1000+ euros in today's money). So, she costed the other taxpayers 516k euro (1000 * 12 * 43) so far. And like her there were more than 500k people who took the deal and the majority is receiving/received more money than my grandma. The estimate is that the state handed out 9B euros/year for basically 45 years totaling 405B euros, which is more than 13% of Italy's total debt just for those pensions. If you add the cost of healthcare for those people over their lifetimes I guess you get that a single generation accounts for between 15% to 20% of the totality of the debt.
While the article is about something that goes in the complete opposite direction, it is also a short-sighted decision IMHO as it will surely worsen the fertility rate crisis that Greece is also facing. I mean, how can you have a child if you have to work 13 hours per day and a low salary to boot?
In Greece, people barely work at all, and work ethic is nonexistent. Getting and keeping a job is about relatives, political loyalty, and personal connections, all real work is done by 'losers' who have nothing of that but their working hours are unregulated anyway and they work illegally for cash. These people need a goddamn reality check.
I'll take your word for it, barely so, for argument's sake.
> all real work is done by 'losers' who have nothing of that but their working hours are unregulated anyway and they work illegally for cash
Oh, so they do work, you contradict yourself here. About "unregulated anyway", you do not express yourself clearly but it seems you're mislabeling work that is outside of regulations as "unregulated", the latter means lack of regulation and it's not the same as "illegal".
Well, that kind of work is up to negotiation between employer and employee, they are on equal footing and the employee can say "No" without any repercussions, actually, in that case, the employers risk more and they will have to be more accommodating than the employees. Ergo, long hours won't happen if the employee says "No".
> These people need a goddamn reality check.
Another out-of-the-blue statement that doesn't follow from your prior story. Actually, the regulations and the government there need a reality check and the people are providing it to them by striking. It's the opposite of what you're trying to insinuate.
Weird how this conflicts with basically all available data about working hours within the EU where is often at the very top on average. What is your statement based on?
To legalise overtime for the few highly qualified employees that are worth it. Now it's just illegal to ask them to work more.
And public sentiment is deeply irrational as always. Like in the US, why do people continuously battle over non-issues like abortion, guns, global warming or transgender rights, but no one seems to have ever protested over the very real, and fixable, issue of gerrymandering?
Legislators sure because their asses depend on it. But common people? And this is the worst perversion of democratic principles in America and if people were even halfways rational they'd go full rage over. But no one seems to give a damn.
Only big issue that's visible in public space that's not entirely made up, is immigration - but even there, views are deeply partisan and completely divorced from reality on both ends.
The world is slowly but steadily walking towards slavery again, but this time without color discrimination.
> walking towards slavery
Modern slavery is a massive problem. There are more slaves today than there were at the peak of slavery in the United States.
It is a strange side effect of US-exceptionalism that projects a shameful-pride that US slavery was the biggest and the worst slavery and they are the heroes for ending slavery, when none of these are remotely true.
What's perhaps worse - most Americans don't even know it exists. I didn't until a foreign person with experience with it opened my eyes to it, and I did more research. Everyone I happen to tell had no idea prior...
Really heartbreaking stuff.
There is still plenty of color discrimination.
Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, Hindus in Pakistan, Christians in Pakistan, Dalits in India, tribal communities in India, migrant workers from Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh in Malaysia, Indigenous Brazilians, Afro-Brazilians, undocumented migrants in United States, South Asians in Middle East, Africans in Middle East (kafala system).
And predictably they're fanning the flames of race to distract from it being an obvious class thing.
My place of employment is trying for a 12h/3d with the remaining 4h given for free. Their main objective is to have workers on the floor 24/7 with no overlapping shifts. This is a nightmare scenario on logistics and circadian rhythms if you don't drive but benefits for having free week days. Also, it would benefit the employer too regarding managing global operations more efficiently due to time zone differentials.
I think the Greeks, like Italians have been fucked by the previous generations living way above their means and forcing younger ones to deal with the problems they caused.
I am not sure about Greek examples, but in Italy, among the bad things done just to ensure another term for a given political party, I hate "baby pensioni" [1] more than anything else. My 90-years old grandmother still benefits from this and after working until 47 she was allowed to retire with a decent pension (1000+ euros in today's money). So, she costed the other taxpayers 516k euro (1000 * 12 * 43) so far. And like her there were more than 500k people who took the deal and the majority is receiving/received more money than my grandma. The estimate is that the state handed out 9B euros/year for basically 45 years totaling 405B euros, which is more than 13% of Italy's total debt just for those pensions. If you add the cost of healthcare for those people over their lifetimes I guess you get that a single generation accounts for between 15% to 20% of the totality of the debt.
While the article is about something that goes in the complete opposite direction, it is also a short-sighted decision IMHO as it will surely worsen the fertility rate crisis that Greece is also facing. I mean, how can you have a child if you have to work 13 hours per day and a low salary to boot?
[1]https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_pensioni
I was shocked when my girl first told me she worked 9 to 9, I couldnt believe it
In Greece, people barely work at all, and work ethic is nonexistent. Getting and keeping a job is about relatives, political loyalty, and personal connections, all real work is done by 'losers' who have nothing of that but their working hours are unregulated anyway and they work illegally for cash. These people need a goddamn reality check.
> people barely work at all...
I'll take your word for it, barely so, for argument's sake.
> all real work is done by 'losers' who have nothing of that but their working hours are unregulated anyway and they work illegally for cash
Oh, so they do work, you contradict yourself here. About "unregulated anyway", you do not express yourself clearly but it seems you're mislabeling work that is outside of regulations as "unregulated", the latter means lack of regulation and it's not the same as "illegal".
Well, that kind of work is up to negotiation between employer and employee, they are on equal footing and the employee can say "No" without any repercussions, actually, in that case, the employers risk more and they will have to be more accommodating than the employees. Ergo, long hours won't happen if the employee says "No".
> These people need a goddamn reality check.
Another out-of-the-blue statement that doesn't follow from your prior story. Actually, the regulations and the government there need a reality check and the people are providing it to them by striking. It's the opposite of what you're trying to insinuate.
Weird how this conflicts with basically all available data about working hours within the EU where is often at the very top on average. What is your statement based on?
If you believe those stats, Germans are the laziest nation in Europe while Greeks are the most hardworking lmao. Do you believe it?
If the situation is as you describe, why is anyone pushing for a 13 hour work day?
To legalise overtime for the few highly qualified employees that are worth it. Now it's just illegal to ask them to work more.
And public sentiment is deeply irrational as always. Like in the US, why do people continuously battle over non-issues like abortion, guns, global warming or transgender rights, but no one seems to have ever protested over the very real, and fixable, issue of gerrymandering?
Didn't Texas legislators just protest that?
Legislators sure because their asses depend on it. But common people? And this is the worst perversion of democratic principles in America and if people were even halfways rational they'd go full rage over. But no one seems to give a damn.
Only big issue that's visible in public space that's not entirely made up, is immigration - but even there, views are deeply partisan and completely divorced from reality on both ends.
There were protests too though it was protesting multiple things https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2025/08/14/texas-redistri...