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Maybe. But the industrial revolution was all about amplifying human production capability through machines. If it's a zero-sum game then it's not worth it.

• flukus 10y ago
  It's not either or though is it? Think modern assembly lines in Asia that are a combination of near slave labor conditions and hi tech production.
  • jwhitlark 10y ago
    I don't think the economic drawback to slavery is about the labor conditions, I think it's the lack of ability to improve you position. Chattel slavery puts about as wide a gap between two human's interests as anything I can think of, with war being a possible exception. The suggestions that slavery grew out of organized warfare explain a lot, I believe. So even if you had similar working conditions, I think you would have dramatically different social pressures and interests.
  • partycoder 10y ago
    Well, people are still required to operate machines, or assembling and packaging a finished product. Especially in the beginning of the industrial revolution when there were as many alternatives for automation as today.