(no subject)

[theweaselking]

After Colorado's draconian ani-immigrant laws drove away immigrant (both legal and illegal) workers, they found themselves short on labour.

They've come up with a novel solution, though: Slavery!

Comments

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

damn, only for registered members

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

bugmenot.com

They've got a firefox plugin that will get you a username and password automatically, too, if you want it.

[smashingstars.livejournal.com]

Here's a Denver Post article about the idea to use prison inmates for cheap labor on farms. I don't know if it's got the same angle on the story as the LA Times. I presume it doesn't, but I didn't register with the LA Times so I didn't compare the two:

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_5324419

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

hmm, would inmates get a shorter sentence? if not, why would they volunteer to do labor like this? just to pass the time?

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Because when you're in a shithole of a prison and confined to a small cell, even slave labour looks good.

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

gotcha

[smashingstars.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. Didn't we (the U.S.) move past this prisoners-as-slave-labor thing a few decades ago? We should have. This is a disturbing idea, although it was nice to see an editorial in the Denver post that called the situation for what it was:

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_5326212

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

For some reason I can read the whole article.

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

Insert Shawshank reference here.

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

What comes to mind is Hoist by their own Petard" (http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hoist%20by%20your%20own%20petard.html)

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Which is different from having inmates clean up roadside litter and make license plates only in that it's for the private sector, as near as I can tell. As long as it's optional, and the conditions in which they would otherwise be kept are humane, I don't really see this as being an especial outrage.

Now, from a trade point of view, this amounts to a government grant, and may be subject to sanction under international trade agreements (GATT, NAFTA, etc.).