4 ms·
That we have a standard of living that high is a historical contingency. Industrialization can work with slavery just as well as it can with 1970s style welfare
by zeth___ 8y ago
That we have a standard of living that high is a historical contingency. Industrialization can work with slavery just as well as it can with 1970s style welfare states.
It is politics and struggle that determines which version of industrialization we end up with, not industrialization itself.
One of my favorite alternative history ideas is the combustion engine and assembly becoming viable in 1790 instead of 1890.
Imagine a South that replaces all the slaves with tractors and automated cotton pickers, and a North which finds slavery works better in Fordist conditions than free labor.