@Phil @adamgurri now you sound like a Marxist.

if an employer sells my work product for $10 and pays me only $5, am I 50% a slave?

not if I have a reasonable option to take another gig or not to work at all. if labor markets are really competitive, you could argue i’m paid the maximum owners can afford. but they usually are not, usually owners are extracting substantial “surplus value”.

doesn’t render the work slavery, if workers have meaningful alternative choices. you do.