John: What, if anything, distinguishes the social programs described here from daily life in corporations
In the case of students, it's needed to get a high school degree. In the case of foreign medical graduates, they face deportation. Big difference.
Benign-sounding social programs designed by crooked legislators to feed profit to their cronies and supporters. Eternal vigilance is the price of a well-run distribution of wealth.
Question 2: What would do more to increase the freedom of the average individual than a system that provided education, health care and a decent retirement as basic human rights, thus weakening the force of wage slavery?
I dunno, John. That question has vexed philosophers from Plato to Rawls. However I was struck with your assumption, which I will restate by boldfacing:
"What would do more to increase the freedom of the *average* individual than a *system* ..."
First, I don't think there is an average anything.Second, I don't think a system (of any kind) can, by itself, increase freedom. In fact, the absence of some systems may actually increase human freedom. As William James observed, "A system is an overly obstinate attempt to think clearly." In the hands of the exploiters and buccaneers, a system can be a very pernicious thing indeed.
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