>Slavery would probably be very profitable if allowed in America today. I completely disagree. The problem with slaves is you have to feed them if you want th

>Slavery would probably be very profitable if allowed in America today. I completely disagree. The problem with slaves is you have to feed them if you want them to work. While Americans (afaik) spend the smaller percentage of their income on food than any other country in the world, the food isn't the cheapest. That is, you can pay some other country for weeks of work for what it would cost to feed a slave for one day (and I think I'm being conservative in this estimation). I think the flaw in your statement is "the cost of subsistence ... hasn't increased very much". I think it's vastly more expensive then it was. Just as a quick data point: How large is a standard farm in America today and how much does the farmer make from it? Enough to live on for a year, right (and he's probably in debt for the equipment)? And he's in fact being paid for the food he produces. In middle ages and you had that same land, you lived like royalty no? And that's while producing much less and feeding all the people who work for you.