Comment by pessimizer
3 years ago
Slaves worked in a lot of crafts and services, not just field agriculture.
It's weird that you think that they had it better than migrant laborers.
3 years ago
Slaves worked in a lot of crafts and services, not just field agriculture.
It's weird that you think that they had it better than migrant laborers.
Slaves had it way worse than migrant workers. But slaves costed owners more than migrant workers cost employers.
Seems like a citation would be useful there.
No citation but in times of inflation the reasoning makes sense to me: a slave would not earn a wage, but the owner would have to provide a roof/bed/food + pay for whatever transportation was needed to/from work + pay for healthcare in case the return on investment would be worth it (probably would?).
An (immigrant) worker gets none of that and might barely be able to get by even without counting the healthcare (in the US).
Sounds to me like a slave might indeed be cheaper in some/many situations than a minimum wage worker. I'm not convinced either way.
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