I can't comment on Calvinism, but I don't believe that the US has ever really escaped from its dependency on slavery, which is another thing that goes right bac

I can't comment on Calvinism, but I don't believe that the US has ever really escaped from its dependency on slavery, which is another thing that goes right back to its earliest days. What's changed is that you're not allowed to ship black people from Africa now, but when you look at articles like the one that was posted, and mass incarceration and prison labour, and basically living as if your employer did you a favour by hiring you...the pattern remains constant even as the implementation changes. And there are still those puritanical underpinnings about 'bad' people deserving the bad treatment they get from 'good' people. Many countries in the world have moved on from that system. Obviously not all of them, but it's still rather shocking that a first world country still actively encourages a system where you can lose all of your agency as a person.