Let me back up and explain my comments a bit more.
By equating marriage and slavery, you demean marriage and trivialize slavery.
Marriage is a mutually beneficial partnership. Both parties give up something to gain something they feel is more valuable. There are some freedoms to living alone. You can do what you want. But there are also costs - you have to do everything that must be done. In the modern world, that means you have to provide for everything you need and you have to do all that needs to be done. In a marriage - a partnership - each party can specialize a bit. Perhaps one can earn enough to support both, so that the other can take care of the home. (This might be the idealized 1950s marriage.) Or both can work and contribute to provide more things than either one could provide separately.
Humans are also generally social creatures. We feel better and we are healthier when we have regular social contacts. A marriage partner provides one way to get that social contact on a regular basis. I’m not arguing that social contact is a universal need among humans, but it is pretty common.
If marriage is so good how come there are so many divorces? I know, I know, it’s not the institution, it’s the people who ain’t good.
So why are there divorces? Well, people are human and make mistakes. Sometimes we make a mistake in picking a marriage partner. People also change. What was a mutually beneficial partnership in the beginning may change over time to the point where it no longer benefits one partner (or perhaps both partners) enough to be worth the costs of being married.
This is in stark contrast to slavery. Slavery is a completely one-sided arrangement. The slave holder takes away virtually all human rights from the slave and forces the slave to work solely for the slave holder’s benefit. It is the exploitation of one person for the benefit of another. The slave gets no benefit from his labors beyond perhaps the provision of subsistence level food and housing. The cost of feeding and housing a slave is merely another cost of business, much like feeding and housing farm animals is a necessary cost of raising the farm animal for food (cattle, pigs, chickens, for example) or for the work the farm animal can do (like horses and oxen). Once the animal has served its purpose, it is tossed aside. The same happens to a slave that is no longer useful. Slavery is among the most demeaning things that humans have come up with during our time on this planet.
As to your sadomasochism comments: Sadism and masochism are mental illnesses. They are not healthy or normal behavior. They should not be trivialized, either. And neither are a form of slavery. Sadism is the affliction of physical or mental pain on others solely for the enjoyment that brings to the sadist. Masochism is the same on yourself. Neither have the financial aspects of slavery. Slave holders can treat the slave quite well - and such was not unheard of in the historic practice of slavery in the US. But it is still slavery, which is different from these mental illnesses. Sadism or masochism - or the combination of both - has nothing to do with slavery. Not even your “voluntary” or “non-coercive” slavery.
I am aware of sadomasochism as a form of sexual play. But this is not the real mental illness. Some folks get a kick out of playing the role of a sadist or masochist. But it’s very important for both parties to understand it is play and should be stopped if either party begins to object. And that’s all I care to comment about that.
–Peter <== who claims 39 years of marriage as his credentials to discuss the topic of marriage.