Following on this thread.
It seems as if there was (is) a lot of talk about cost, but not a lot about benefit. Consider the prison labor of the '40s (&, indeed, even today). It wasn't a great deal different from slavery, & it was a desired option, because it saved money for businesses. You may have to pay a fee for using slaves, but it's less than the $8-15/h you'd have to pay free people today. And the slaveowner isn't paying the total cost of housing & feeding, then, he's making a profit on the contract fee (or at least breaking even).
Yes, there would be international approbation, not unlike for apartheid. Would that amount to a complete shunning? Maybe. Eventually.
And at bottom, IMO, there's a deeper issue: is this an end de jure or de facto? The law may never actually prohibit slavery, by 13th & 14th Amendment, but its practise may disappear because it becomes unprofitable.
Not having those Amendments impacts U.S. society an enormous amount, even if slavery ceases to be formally practised. (Some of the ways. {plug
})
It seems as if there was (is) a lot of talk about cost, but not a lot about benefit. Consider the prison labor of the '40s (&, indeed, even today). It wasn't a great deal different from slavery, & it was a desired option, because it saved money for businesses. You may have to pay a fee for using slaves, but it's less than the $8-15/h you'd have to pay free people today. And the slaveowner isn't paying the total cost of housing & feeding, then, he's making a profit on the contract fee (or at least breaking even).
And that appears to be confirmed by the use of prison labor.This model suggests a dark possibility. If slavery had survived into the early 20th century when industrial processes were broken down into discrete tasks that are easy to monitor (think Henry Ford) does slavery suddenly become viable in a modern capitalist economy? I would suggest there is a reasonably compelling argument for this outcome implying that slavery could be flourishing in the modern day.
Yes, there would be international approbation, not unlike for apartheid. Would that amount to a complete shunning? Maybe. Eventually.
And at bottom, IMO, there's a deeper issue: is this an end de jure or de facto? The law may never actually prohibit slavery, by 13th & 14th Amendment, but its practise may disappear because it becomes unprofitable.
Not having those Amendments impacts U.S. society an enormous amount, even if slavery ceases to be formally practised. (Some of the ways. {plug
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