SERVANTS AND SLAVES

by Jorge D. Lomboy
June 15, 2015



Whenever we hear the word servant, we have a mental image of someone hired to work for a family.  The servant is what we call a domestic helper.  He or she lives in the family home, works for every member of the family and does almost all of the household work. 

Our idea of a servant is one who serves at any time of the day or night on a twenty-four hour basis.  The servant has no claim for the eight-hour labor law, no claim for overtime, no claim for pension, no claim for workers compensation and no claim for medical benefits.  The servant has no fringe benefits such as vacation and sick leave with pay, and is practically unprotected by labor laws.  A family servant as a domestic helper works at the will and pleasure of the family and can be terminated at will with or without cause.  Since there are no labor laws in his or her favor, the family servant is completely at the mercy of the family members insofar as his tenure of work and conditions of employment are concerned.

These onerous working arrangements virtually make every family member an employer of the servant.  He becomes the employee of everyone in the family.  This employer-employee relationship has increased to include and identify with public servants in public service.  I have no intention to demean the dignity of labor when I say that this employer-employee relationship could also be categorized as a master-servant relationship.  The word master is too strong to impute lordship over someone under his personal authority and control.  The reason an employer is regarded as a master is because the master has the power to direct the time, manner and place of the services.  The master has the right to control the physical conduct of the servant in the performance of his menial duties.

The words don and dona, senor and senores, and senora and senorita were derived from employment regarded as a master-servant relationship.  Over the years the master-servant relationship was so constricted to the home environment of local and urban communities but has now expanded by legislation to include wage earners in coat and tie and executives sitting on swivel chairs in public and private offices.  Wage earners from janitors to managers are classified as servants including skilled and unskilled workers, professionals and other disciplines in the public and private sector.  It is quite a misnomer to call them servants when some of them don’t have ministerial functions.  Many of them involve decision-making jobs.  Professional employees, managers and supervisors have the power and discretion to render judgment with authority to govern and rule.  Decision-making workers are masters and not servants.  The function of policy-making is an exercise of sovereign power.

Government is an institution of sovereign power that is distributed to the executive, legislative and judicial branches.  The powers of government in these branches are not exercised by anyone but the employees within these branches which includes executives, lawmakers, judges and justices.  All sovereign functions of government are carried out by personnel who deal directly with the public.  I don’t think it is correct to call them servants.  We do what they want and we obey what they tell us to do under pain of prosecution for disobedience or defiance.  As a general rule, a master is richer than the servant but in the case of government workers the servant is richer than the people he serves.  Public employees represent government and not the people they serve.  Their exercise of the sovereign functions of government makes them masters of the public.

This master-servant relationship in the household that extends to public servants comes to full circle with wage earners in various agencies, proprietaries, partnerships, corporations and companies, all in the private sector.  All these entities are employers and none of them could ever be classified as servants.  Everyone from the janitor to the president is on the payroll of these entities.  As with public servants, wage earners in the private sector are protected by labor laws in terms of rights and compensation.  The eight-hour labor law, minimum wage law, overtime law, workers compensation law, termination pay law and laws against discrimination protect them from exploitation.  Maternity, sick leave and vacation leave, pension benefits and retirement are as much a consideration of employment intended to minimize turnovers.  All these fringe benefits stabilize a wage earner’s sense of security in the private sector.

A domestic helper for a family is a servant and not a slave.  A wage earner for the government is a master and not a servant.  A worker as a businessman is either a servant or a master.  He is a servant because he works for the benefit of the company and is paid by the tycoon.  He is a master because he owns all the money capital invested in the company.  The company is organized to operate for the benefit of the business owner.  He owns the business and the business does not own him.  In the private sector, the employer company cannot tell the owner employee what and what not to do.  The employer company cannot tell the owner employee when to work, where to work and what work to do.  The employer company is just a business name, an employer on paper.

A servant has rights and benefits.  A slave has no rights or benefits.  A servant is free, a slave is not.  There are no slaves in an employment setting.  In an employment setting, a servant is a wage earner serving the family, the government or the business enterprise.  A slave is a person held in servitude as the chattel of another, one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence.  Article 13 of the U.S. Bill of Rights abolished slavery and involuntary servitude.  The abolition reaffirms the January 1, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.  The master-servant relationship is not connected to slavery, has nothing to do with slavery and is foreign to slavery.  Both master and servant are entitled to the same Bill of Rights at, during and outside of work.

Borrowers are often the losers and lenders are always the winners.  Indebtedness is indeed the most torturous bound to slavery.  Slavery exists in a debtor-creditor relationship, it is alive in the borrower-lender relationship.  A borrower is a slave of the lender and a debtor is a slave of the creditor.  The borrower and debtor no longer work for themselves.  They work for their lenders and creditors.  Money enslaves everyone and indebtedness detracts from the abolition of slavery.  It is a form of involuntary servitude as it negates the Emancipation Proclamation.  Indebtedness drives everyone to involuntary servitude of working to die instead of working to live.  Debtors are virtual chattels for the lender owns their time and the lion’s share of their earnings.

The credit bureaus try to predict your future by looking at your past.  This is the way the world operates.  They judge you by what has occurred in the past.  Ailment, sickness and disease won’t stop the bills from coming in the mail.  A double-job and triple-job are the preoccupation of people who live by their wants.  Indebtedness is slavery of the heart and mind for with it there is less peace of mind which leads to loss or lack of sleep.  Indebtedness is slavery of time for a debtor’s loved ones are deprived of family time.  Indebtedness is a survivor of every catastrophe and devastation with debtors as its casualties.  The creditors and lenders have introduced a culture where money is our best friend.  And the master-servant relationship and borrower-lender relationship are two powerful binders of servants and slaves.