Perhaps the sludge really is poisonous goo. If so perhaps the negative side-effect will be to turn Asok into a bald-headed CEO. That would be a truly horrific transformation ...
Indeed, slavery never ended. It just transformed into "I have no land and if I lose my job I 'll lose everything I have, so I let my employer be as much as an a$$ we wants". Buy a piece of land folks! Food and land will get progressively more expensive, while job pay will become lower and lower (hint: overpopulation).
Knowing Scott, he will probably surprise us tomorrow by having the sludge have an unexpectedly and highly improbably beneficial effect on Asok. Expect a sudden overwhelming demand for the sludge as a health drink and the CEO being heralded as a genius (or not).