I'll have to do a more in depth post on this sometime, but for now, let me just say I think people are wise to appreciate the extent to which Western countries, in particular ones like Canada, are purposefully tending toward Serfdom traps.
Historically, one branch into serfdom was the gradual emancipation of slaves, say in the late Roman empire, into land/trade locked peasantry. In essence, they could have increased freedoms as long as the state was guaranteed products of labour.
Another branch into serfdom was the erosion of rough forms of middle classdom into serfdom via ever increasing tax excises, or increasing governmental authoritarianism. I don't think slippery slope tax slavery was very common, but I'm still digging through alternative ways this dynamic may have been expressed in historical contexts. The Dawn of Everything makes strong suggestions that changes toward authoritarianism produced a controlled class of people, and that outward looking expansion often created a dynamic where this class of people was viewed as soldier and labour good producers. Basically authoritarian regimes evolved to seeing this class less as autonomous individuals and more as state owned production goods - much like cattle.
Late medieval serfdom tended to view the peasantry much like the cattle analogy - as state owned objects of production.
MODERN EQUIVALENCY
Modern equity based socialism has almost fully evolved the landscape trap for serfdom. In Canada for instance, the governmental behaviour of the two ruling socialist leaders demonstrate a HUGE extraction of resources from the middle class toward the 1) upper classes, 2) bureaucracy, 3) and somewhat toward poorer classes.
Tendencies toward subsidization will likely solidify the serf trap.
Who pays for these expenditures? The middle class. Right now this is seen as bearable, but as taxes increase by a few percent each year, and real wages drop, over the course of multiple decades you will reach a point of guaranteed immiseration. "You will own nothing and be happy" is, I believe the right wing mantra. Turchin sees this in terms of his elite overproduction collapse model. Fair enough.
The dynamical parallel between modern and ancient serfdom is in the governing view of the role of the middle class as tools of production rather than as autonomous individuals (classical liberalism).
Trudeau' hubris makes this rather evident. The middle class' role is to support the poor. This is what "makes one Canadian". Trudeau's 1700's kingly attitudes enables some more parallels. It is very plausible that Trudeau is purposefully increasing Canada's population not just to grab the 0.1%GDP boost per 100k immigrants, but also to up our relative international position. Bigger societies have bigger influence. Historically we see authoritarian leanings in Kings expressed via wars of conquest. You grew your crop of serfs up so that each generation you could roll the dice on your big war campaign. I would be VERY surprised if those tendencies had evolved out of our population. Rather, I think they are just expressed more pro-socially via immigrant based country population expansion. There are certainly other superficial reasons for this, but I suspect they are just proximate covers for some ultimate biology.
In post-Rome, I believe the transition of slaves into serfs also created political power. Slaves had no voice. But land/trade based peasants had at least some influence. The Christian church used this to their advantage. That is how bishops emerged as political powerhouses. Alms tied the poor to religious officials. That then increased the secular power of these officials. This then led to the conjoining of religion and governance in the form of "Bishops".
Today socialism buys of the poor for political support via money grown by the middle class. Ballot harvesting only magnifies this issue.
WHEN WILL THIS BE NOTICED
I don't think the serfdom trap will be noticed until a sufficient number of middle class producers drop out of the labour marker so that state funds become insufficient. Post lock-down we already see a collapse in labour market participation.
It is not unreasonable to speculate that equity logic may lead the state to suggest that individuals of certain identities who have employable skills should be expected to work. No dole for that white college boy - the 'state' invested in them. In theory, this could be enforced with expectations of base tax contributions based on identity factors. Why have just an income tax percentage when you can set a base rate "contribution". For instance, if you are a white male with no intersectional privilege then you should be able to contribute $2000 a year plus income percentages. This step has already occurred with child support. The logical transition from child support to marginalized people support is minor and would be politically advantageous to push via equity.
That is all you need for serfdom. How do you escape? The middle class functionally doesn't. Each new job advancement comes with increasing production burdens. Escape from these likely would need to come with proper religious/political conversion and with sufficient obeisances to guarantee entry into exploitive class dynamics.
