Wealth Stratification

[utgibbs]

Gibbs, you have me face-palming right out my back door.
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What about?

 

[volinbham]

I asked who was better off, and the scholarship has some disturbing insights on this.

What's disturbing is you implying that slaves were "better off".

 

[milohimself]

Gibbs going all michele bachmann up in here
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[BigPapaVol]

Gibbs going all michele bachmann up in here
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He has never said anything to approach her sensibility - and she should be fit for a straightjacket.
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[utgibbs]

What's disturbing is you implying that slaves were "better off".

Again, the scholarship suggests chattel slaves had more access to decent livelihoods than many of the wage slaves of today. This is what I mean by "better off"; obviously the notion of chattel slavery is repugnant. And chattel slavery is not a thing of the past either even in the US.

What fascinates me is how with this repugnant institution - an institution that literally built America - might actually have been better from a material perspective for those abused by it than a laissez-faire Early Capitalism (or even Late Capitalism in many, many parts of the world today).

There is, of course, much else to consider. Sorry to confuse you earlier. :hi:

 

[BigPapaVol]

Literally built America? Try to be more ridiculous if you must, but you'll struggle.
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[IPorange]

I'm a very open-minded and out-of-the-box kind of guy... but gibbs, I just don't get how you arrive at any of your claims. I'd much rather be the shift leader at McDonald's than the shift leader of Massuh's cotton picking staff.

 

[utgibbs]

I'm a very open-minded and out-of-the-box kind of guy... but gibbs, I just don't get how you arrive at any of your claims. I'd much rather be the shift leader at McDonald's than the shift leader of Massuh's cotton picking staff.

Of course. The McD's employee has enjoyed the fruits of the liberal struggle for the past 150 years (which are being reversed in our own historic time).

We are talking about chattel slavery and Early Capitalism in its own historical context. Not chattel slavery of the past compared to wage work in the United States of today. There was definite material advantage to being "owned" than being a wage laborer in Early Capitalism. However, it is probably not out of order to compare chattel slavery of today where "ownership" has not been legally codified and chattel slavery of yesteryear. This is what is fascinating.

And it should not be unexpected given the bourgeois mind and its imperative for economic rationality as the supreme principle of human endeavor.

 

[BigPapaVol]

Of course. The McD's employee has enjoyed the fruits of the liberal struggle for the past 150 years (which are being reversed in our own historic time).

We are talking about chattel slavery and Early Capitalism in its own historical context. Not chattel slavery of the past compared to wage work in the United States of today. There was definite material advantage to being "owned" than being a wage laborer in Early Capitalism. However, it is probably not out of order to compare chattel slavery of today where "ownership" has not been legally codified and chattel slavery of yesteryear. This is what is fascinating.

And it should not be unexpected given the bourgeois mind and its imperative for economic rationality as the supreme principle of human endeavor.

we aren't talking about any such thing. You are.

 

[sjt18]

gibbs... are you a fake or do you really and truly believe the non-sense you post?

 

[n_huffhines]

Of course. The McD's employee has enjoyed the fruits of the liberal struggle for the past 150 years (which are being reversed in our own historic time).

We are talking about chattel slavery and Early Capitalism in its own historical context. Not chattel slavery of the past compared to wage work in the United States of today. There was definite material advantage to being "owned" than being a wage laborer in Early Capitalism. However, it is probably not out of order to compare chattel slavery of today where "ownership" has not been legally codified and chattel slavery of yesteryear. This is what is fascinating.

And it should not be unexpected given the bourgeois mind and its imperative for economic rationality as the supreme principle of human endeavor.

Actually it's argued by economists that slavery is inefficient and had it not been so institutionalized by the the Federal and state governments it would have likely faded out naturally. Though it's probably true that the average slave had a better living standard than the average unskilled free laborer in the north, the overall economy was much stronger in the north because it was innovative and labor was competitive. The north was ripe for an economic explosion because of the growing pains it went through.