RAH, "Logic of Empire" (1941)
archive.orgpp 9-43, direct link: https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v27n01_1941-03_Gorgon...
Unamerican of Heinlein but easier on mobile
https://knigorub.com/116529-logic-of-empire/page-1.html
>Decades later, while there is still an abundance of land [& chatbots], this [IT serf] market remains because the colony itself has quotas to meet and debts to repay and cannot spare the resources to develop local industries to make the machines itself, yet free labor still then does not have to bid its price down enough to out-compete [serf] labor.
https://www.respublika.lt/lt/naujienos/pasaulis/kitos_pasaul...
Google translate on desktop didn't seem to work for this one but I suspect you might manage
Edit: "If This Goes On--" was the story that got me into Heinlein.. I'd started on "Number of the Beast" but that was too long..
I don't, but one could argue that even this author's vision of that particular institution is far too inclusive of the subaltern: 兄弟如手足，妻子如衣服。 衣服破，尚可縫；手足斷，安可續？
Yeah, that'd be an excellent use of taxes (but still unamerican)