Ask Lemmy

Slavery ended?

As others have pointed out, slavery is still used as a punishment for prisoners in most states. The south in particular used/uses it to maintain slavery of african americans through selective enforcement of laws. Human trafficing is still a thing in the US even if it isn't legal. And the way our economy works can be likened to a form of wage slavery where people often dont have a choice but to work for a specific employer. Especially if they're undocumented. Apple was caught using the H1B visa program as a means of keeping immigrant employees effectively trapped there. The justice department fined them 25 million dollars. A slap on the wrist for exploiting vulnerable people.

But there already is slavery in US. look into unpaid prison labor

Slavery already exists in the US in various forms, and in greater numbers than prior to the Civil War, but no I would not be surprised if the right wingers legalize slavery again, or if Gilead/Texas tries first.

Either way fuck the Confederate wannabes, we should smash them now so we don't have to do it yet again later, which is what Grant failed to do during the Reconstruction era.

Sherman was right!

Prisoners are the slaves... Slavery has never stopped in the USA just changed form

You've already got for-profit prisons in the US where inmates (slaves) are hired out.

What do we know about how a for-profit system works? That's right - profit must always keep growing, or to put it another way, incentivising the process of creating criminals in order to increase the potential for a growing slave labour market is a growth industry.

Just because something doesn't have the literal name 'slavery' attached to it, doesn't mean it isn't actually slavery in every respect that matters.

Slavery never went away.

As several people in this thread have pointed out, some forms of slavery do exist in the US. For example, prison labor, sex trafficking, and other forms of coerced labor.

However we do not have chattel slavery, where you can actively buy and sell other humans as property. I would be extremely surprised if that ever made a comeback.

Is working 2 full time jobs just to be able to afford rent and utilities considered slavery?

There are lots of legal slaves in the US. They're just in prisons so out of sight, out of mind. It's constitutionally legal.

When the government ran most prisons many would pay them a couple of dollars an hour or something to make it seem more like work. Now many for profit prisons either pay pennies an hour or nothing at all, and many require you to work either directly or by making the meals low in nutrition or completely inedible so they have to buy their real food. And this isn't like working by cleaning or laundry or whatever, this is making products that the prisons sell. Much of the stuff labeled "Made in America" is made by slaves.

There are also lots of illegal slaves hidden away. Mostly immigrants who couldn't afford the thousands of dollars to apply for legal status before their visas ran out or who were carried across the border as babies and had to hide it their whole lives or other similar circumstances.

Outside of prisons, you mean?

Yes because modern slavery is much more effective. Make people take over debt and then pay them the minimum, barely enough to survive, and they will do whatever you tell them to do. You don't need guard or weapon although a little bit of propaganda and no union, because union are communism and communism bad m'kay.

Now that you ask…

Instead of giving people free food and housing in prisons, I imagine mandatory work sentences for minor offences. Littering? 1 year of mandatory work. Why it’s black people disproportionately getting work time? I don’t know… must be in their genes or something.

Apparently this didn't hit your news feed over the last few days.

As others have pointed out, there is still slavery in America. Wage slavery is slavery. Tying healthcare access to employment doesn't help.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if Cthulhu himself rose from Lake Michigan and started a slow trek south, gathering followers and accepting sacrifices as he goes.

I want to say yes, but aren't some (all?) prisons slavery?

Yes? What kind of stupid question is this? I'd take to the streets.

We've already got prison slavery and wage slavery running rampant, but I don't think chattel slavery will make a comeback.

Slavery has been legal in the United States since 1789.

Chattle slavery? Certainly but slavery never left, it just changed

Slavery never disappeared anywhere.

I would be shocked, appalled, but not surprised. At this point the only thing that would surprise me about the US is if they actually somehow do something that fixes their backwards country.

Yes?

I know people talk about prisoners and wage slaves, but the United States is also participating in, and profiting from, child slavery as well; it just doesn't happen in the states. Just take a look at where your chocolate comes from, if it's Hershey, Mars, or Nestle, it was probably harvested by someone under 15 who has never even tasted chocolate. And the US is just.... cool with it.

https://foodispower.org/human-labor-slavery/slavery-chocolate/

Full blown de jure chattel slavery? Yes, I would be surprised.

Slavery didn't end because people realized it was bad. They always knew that. It ended because of the industrial revolution.

There are slaves, just low numbers because it's illegal. There's also a lot of working arrangements with illegal immigrants that look very similar in a bad light.

In fairness most western countries have a low level of slavery - they found some forced labour on a farm in Australia a few years back for example.

If you're asking if any US state wants to legalise slavery, it's extremely unpopular everywhere, except in a few niche pointy white hat communities.

Yes.

But the USA has surprised me before.