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For most of the world's history, life ran on one motto: "If you don't work (or someone who loves you doesn't work for you), you don't eat." The alternative is
by gjsman-1000 3y ago
For most of the world's history, life ran on one motto:
"If you don't work (or someone who loves you doesn't work for you), you don't eat."
The alternative is manifestly unjust: A prisoner who might have killed 20 people gets to just live life, and can't be ordered to even keep the cell doors clean.
- ceejayoz 3y ago"Most of the world's history" was shitty and brutal. It is good to move past outdated concepts.
- throwway120385 3y agoWhy not keep going and just start selling prisoners directly into indenture? You could call them "servants" and sell them on blocks to the highest bidder. Require as a condition of purchase that a percentage of the purchase price be delivered into their hands when their indenture ends.
- gjsman-1000 3y agoIf we cannot punish prisoners for their crimes by being required to do even a modicum of labor (it's certainly not brutal anymore), why even put them in jail in the first place? We're restricting their right to free movement, which is de-facto slavery. If we want to abolish slavery fully, prisons themselves cannot exist.
- ceejayoz 3y ago> why even put them in jail in the first place? To keep them separate from the society they're having trouble safely engaging with. > We're restricting their right to free movement, which is de-facto slavery. No; imprisonment and slavery are not the same thing. You can't just redefine words to make your strawman argument work.