Prison labour taking private sector jobs

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All right, say I'm a boss and I'm in the market for workers and I want to keep costs down in order that my profits are higher. What's optimal for me; to have low unemployment and having a seller's market, so I have to be far less choosy, have to pay more, have to train, have to send a bus perhaps for workers, or other ways to lure them to my business, or would I prefer a high unemployment situation where it's a buyer's market where I can choose to pay people far less, force them commute 3 hours on their own to my workplace, have enough choice of candidates so I can choose people who believe in my politics, can account for every moment of their last ten years to my satisfaction, passed a battery of tests that I provide, and I don't have to pay a penny for training? Tell me, if I was a boss, what would I prefer; a low unemployment situation or a high unemployment situation? This is a very simple question with a very clear answer and the answer proves that yes, there are powerful people out there who want unemployment and work hard to make sure there is unemployment. And the NAIRU theory is part of the justification for creating a Reserve Army of Labour. There is nothing at all incoherent about this very simple and obvious fact! The sooner people realise this and stop being in denial about this truth the easier it would be for people to find a real solution to the problems we face today with unemployment.

All right, say I'm a boss and I'm in the market for workers and I want to keep costs down in order that my profits are higher. What's optimal for me?

To have low unemployment and having a seller's market, so I have to be far less choosy, have to pay more, have to train, have to send a bus perhaps for workers, or other ways to lure them to my business?

Or would I prefer a high unemployment situation where it's a buyer's market where I can choose to pay people far less, force them commute 3 hours on their own to my workplace, have enough choice of candidates so I can choose people who believe in my politics, can account for every moment of their last ten years to my satisfaction, passed a battery of tests that I provide, and I don't have to pay a penny for training?

Tell me, if I was a boss, what would I prefer; a low unemployment situation or a high unemployment situation? This is a very simple question with a very clear answer and the answer proves that yes, there are powerful people out there who want unemployment and work hard to make sure there is unemployment.

And the NAIRU theory is part of the justification for creating a Reserve Army of Labour. There is nothing at all incoherent about this very simple and obvious fact! The sooner people realise this and stop being in denial about this truth the easier it would be for people to find a real solution to the problems we face today with unemployment.

Putting prisoners to work to help defray the cost of their imprisonment is perfectly reasonable. As long as the labor does not constitute undue (and unconstitutional ) physical abuse or cruelty.

ruveyn

A report by auditors at Ernst & Young concluded that Ikea, a Swedish company, knowingly benefited from forced labor in the former East Germany to manufacture some of its products in the 1980s. Ikea had commissioned the report in May as a result of accusations that both political and criminal prisoners were involved in making components of Ikea furniture and that some Ikea employees knew about it....

The use of political prisoners as forced labor, even decades ago, is a publicity disaster for a company that with its familiar blue and yellow logo seems at times like a cultural ambassador for Sweden. Inexpensive Ikea furnishings have filled countless student apartments and the homes of millions of young families around the world.

Accusations against Ikea started to appear about a year ago in news media reports in Germany and Sweden. Ikea’s admission has given new impetus to efforts by victims’ groups to receive compensation for work they were forced to perform under the Communist government in East Germany, an issue that has long been overshadowed here by the large and deadly slave-labor program under the Nazis....

Ikea is not the only company that has been linked to forced labor in the former East Germany by purchasing goods from suppliers there, though the actual number may never be known.

Mr. Diederich said that after an attempt to escape from East Germany, he was forced to make steel pipes for the firms Klöckner & Company and Mannesmann.

At least two well-known mail-order companies in the former West Germany, Neckermann and Quelle, which have since run into financial trouble, have also been accused of using forced labor.

Christian Sachse, a Berlin historian, said forced labor permeated institutions across East Germany, and that it would take “years of research to properly understand the field.” ....

Jochen Staadt, a professor at the Free University of Berlin, said it was well known at the time that East Germany was using prisoners to work in factories but that West Germany encouraged the production of goods in the East because it allowed the East to reduce its debt. At the same time, companies liked to move production to East Germany because costs were lower.

Professor Staadt said companies like Ikea would still have paid for the work in East Germany but that the pay never reached the workers. “It was pocketed by the G.D.R.,” he said....

"People who work here have to work 15 hours a day without Saturday, Sunday break and any holidays. Otherwise, they will suffer torturement, beat and rude remark. Nearly no payment (10 yuan/1 month)." That translates to about $1.61 a month.

That constitution is very much open to interpretation, ultimately by nine old farts. I'll bet that at least four of them (including Clarence Thomas) would have voted in favour of the Dred Scott decision.

Raptor's liberalism is showing today.

Lessons can be learned from the convict leasing program (1865-1928). In a nutshell it's a very very bad practice, especially for the convicts, when it becomes a legally accepted practice to arrest and convict people for the sole purpose of feeding business labor needs. That's just wrong.

However, I have no problem with them doing work within the prison solely for the prison like gardening and raising stock to feed the prison populace or other work that directly benefits the operation of the prison.

convict leasing