Seen at least 2 mutuals marvel at how anyone could vote no on the Oregon resolution to amend the constitution to prohibit slavery. Well, I did, so here goes:
Like, no one's legally holding chattel, I understood the question as "should we change up systems of prison labor and subject them to general wage labor laws intended for the circumstances of the outside" and had not been convinced that would usefully create a better world.
Like, no disrespect to Malcolm X but if I was spending X years in prison I would absolutely rather work in the machine shop for 2 Cokes a day than read the dictionary, and I think that's okay
No reason there couldn’t be machinist training classes, or just a recreational woodshop or auto shop. Instead of an actual functioning machine shop churning out products that undercut the wages of non-imprisoned workers.
And while Cokes might be a luxury, a lot of what prisoners are using their pitiful prison wages for are real necessities. Outrageous phone and postage fees, paying for their own basic toiletries like soap and toilet paper, and supplementing their diet with food from the commissary because the prison cafeteria food is barely fit for livestock to eat. That entire exploitative industry grows *because* prisoners have this little disposable income given to them by the hyper-exploitative prison labor system.
Heroically asinine take op, are you actually saying that you would prefer to work in a machine shop for two cokes a day rather than for an actual minimum wage? Not sure you've fully thought this one through, but I respect your confidence in putting this one out there.
This assumes the alternative is “pay these total randoms American minimum wage for bottom-of-the-barrel work”, which I do not