umm... That's way nicer than working conditions for most people for most of the people during the Industrial Revolution.
Yet things got better; which is my point.
No, your point was that no one would put up with those conditions. Most of humanity has for most of history.
LOL. I know what my point is; which is that people will seek better conditions, or make them. Those in the IR did not put up with them for long. They sought greener pastures.
Only if there are better conditions. And the fact is, many people work in similar conditions today. But lets avoid talking about the modern condition.
Shadowrun is fiction set in a dystopian universe. Therefore, it adheres to certain requirements, such as the corporate wageslaves will accept the status quo, though every now and then, one of them will maintain enough free will to feel disatisfied with life and seek alternatives.
We could debate endlessly whether humans would accept these conditions and if so, for how long. But the average wageslave in shadowrun does accept these conditions. What we could do, instead, is explore why the wage slave does accept and expand upon the idea to develop a working understanding of how the wage slave sees the world.
Note: There are actually two types of wage slaves. The wage slaves lucky enough to work for a Megacorp, and the faceless masses who work for smaller businesses or affliates. Below, I will be focuses on Megacorp employees.
To provide some structure, lets use the Maslow's heirachy of needs
Physiological needs
Well, this ones easy. Big corporates provide food and shelter via corporate housing. Wages allow employees to purchase food. If purchased form company stores, I'm sure there is a number of benefits in quality and quantity.
Safety needs
Corps provide physical security to their employees. In the dystopian world of shadowrun with gangs roaming the streets, shadowrunners, technomancers, magic threats etc, Security is a major issue. The fact that Corps harp upon how dangerious the world is to their employees helps emphasis this need.
Corps provide financial security. Wages are not great, but they sure are reliable. With no safety net out there in the dangerious world, and savings all tied up in corporate cred, which wage slave would risk their family and sacrifice the security of corporate employment?
Corps provide medical care. Medical care is expensive and except for some unreliable street clinics (portrayed as organ theives in corp controled tv), who would risk losing their medical cover. Sure, it has limits, but cheap cyberware and drugs will fix most things. And if you get a promotion, you get better cover!
Love and Belonging
You are born in a corp facility, raised by a corp family and fed a steady diet of corp-approved education and entertainment. The bond between wage slaves and the sense of us vs them (everyone else) would be increadible. Sure, there is the normal friction between people, sometimes dangerious office politics, but for most wage slaves, corp is family. With such tight bonds, who would leave? Transfer to a different facility maybe... but actually leave the corporation? Only the odd wild child... the ex-corp shadowrunner.
Esteem
Now we start seeing holes in the wage slave's outlook. Most are told they are valuable citizens in the corporate family... that their jobs are important and the corp needs them! but the harsh reality is that they are nothing but a small, disposable cog in a massive machine. And that must be crushing sometimes. But then, thats when the mindless entertain, chips, drugs and other corp-supplied (or at least not restricted) indulgences help.
But for the real go-getter? Well, Corps are meritocracies. You can get ahead, promoted, ect if you try. Is it easy? No. Does it help if your friends with the Manager? Yes. But every corp facility has the story of wage slave x who made it big back at head office and now runs an entire production line!
Anyway, those are my thoughts on why Wage Slaves stick with their corporate family. The corp meets all their needs, and the world out there? Is cold, dark and dangerious!