Britain Chooses Slavery


The Global Financial Crisis is still biting, but what if it had bit harder earlier? Even before the credit crunch a lot of people were feeling they’d missed out on what wealth was going around. But more than that, they felt disempowered and disconnected from society. The whole situation started me thinking. What if people didn’t want to be citizens or even to be responsible for themselves? What if they could choose to relinquish all that and become slaves?

So I set up a situation where people contracted to be slaves for seven year terms (Jubilee Year the contracts are paid out), giving their labour for a defined purpose and in return being cared for–food, clothes, health, and relinquishing their vote, jury duty, most civil duties.

The idea still intrigues me. What sort of society would we have where some people choose to be slaves and others choose to “own” them?

Over at Goodreads I’ve posted a short story that begins to explore this situation.


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