> Slavery's not illegal, that's a fucking lie It's illegal, unless it's for conviction of a crime The main objective is to get you in your fucking prime And keep the prison full and not give you a fucking dime
Cause free labor's the cornerstone of US economics
Cause slavery was abolished, unless you are in prison
You think I am bullshittin? Then read the 13th Amendment
Involuntary servitude and slavery it prohibits
That's why they givin' drug offenders time in double digits
- Killer Mike, Reagan
Yeah, no.
The lyric is alluding to the fact that the country's foundation was built on 100s of years of free labor.
The practice of exporting worthless printed paper in exchange for valuable labor intensive goods is also what that lyric is pointing to.
American slavery, a model that has evolved and now encompasses much of the globe.
Keeping a large % of the world and "undesirable" domestic population poor, at gun point if necessary, is in America's national economic interest.
Such as your opinion.
I don't think slavery would have been abolished without the industrial revolution.
That is most certainly not the usual interpretation of free labor.
The overwhelming majority of slaves in the US were field hands in plantations growing cash crops. How exactly did rudimentary agricultural mechanization around the time of the American Civil War in any way precipitate abolition?
You're right, it's not profitable for the government (although it probably is profitable for some private prisons who also receive money from the government).
"The U.S. spends $81 billion a year on mass incarceration, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and that figure might be an underestimate."[1]
1: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/the-u-s-spends-billions...
A larger issue is the prison industrial complex, not the involuntary servitude within it
Dr. Spencer Reid : Something's bothering you. I can always tell when you're bothered because you whisper lyrics to yourself. Hip-hop specifically. I thought it was odd at first, but then I remembered your dissertation was on the fluidity of metaphor. You seem to have a particular fondness for Nas.
Alex Blake : Wow. How did you know?
Dr. Spencer Reid : Morgan made me listen to him when we started working together. He said anybody that can't quote Illmatic is ignorant. So, do you want to talk about it?
It details not only the brutality of the system but also the apathy and corruption of the minimum wage employee guards. So many of the guards themselves run smuggling ops and other deals with the prisoners as they are minimum wage barely screened laborers.
It's a horrific if eye-opening book, an excellent read. I found out about it by another poster on hackernews and highly recommend!
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/38561954-american-pri...
I get that Lousiana is different they use Civil Law and descend from France/Spain, not England.
But, no prison gangs! I figured that was just a universal thing.
They have them in France and Spain … why not Louisiana?
Because Louisiana does things different.
If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.
There is little to associate the modern Republican party with, for example, Lincoln's party. Are Republicans of today going to enforce those reparations you're waiting on??? Your one-sided painting of the situation is a useless way to frame reality.
The fact that the people with the values who called themselves Democrats back then became what are Republicans today.
Stop trying to re-write history to fit a narrative, life sucks hard enough without people making stuff up to muddy the waters.
The people in the Dixiecrats are known. There are lists.
Can you name 10 that switched parties? You can't.
It is true that Civil Rights in 1964 began the switch. But it didn't really get going until Civil Rights Act (1964) really alienated Southern Democrats. Starting with Nixon's Southern First strategy, Republicans worked to appeal to them. With the rise of the religious right under Reagan there was a mass migration.
You can see https://www.history.com/news/how-the-party-of-lincoln-won-ov... to see that I'm not simply making this version of history up.
Did you have any references to it being just a "big lie"?
https://innocenceproject.org/13th-amendment-slavery-prison-l... documents that it still happens in places like Louisiana.