Should slavery be reinstated?

[dazzleman]

Yes, this is another inspired poll, and you can make 1,000's similiar polls if so desired.

But consider this: we already tell our high school students in many states they must perform community service, and prisoners are sometimes found doing work, at least they were in the past.

Making prisoners perform labor is not slavery; it is part of punishment for a crime.  Slaves committed no crime other than being born with the wrong skin color.  So the two are not comparable.

Neither is the high school community service requirement.  That is a minimal and short-term commitment, and intended to be enriching to the student as well as the community.  You might just as well call homework slavery.

As an aside, at my high school, they sometimes used to make students who got in trouble for breaking rules do work details after school as punishment.  I wish I had known my "rights" back then; I would have contacted the ACLU about it.

Of course, I voted no slavery under any circumstances.  What other way is there to vote?

[dazzleman]

No, I'm quite certain that increasing wages would drive an increase in productivity.  Also I wouldn't mind taxing the higher income levels at say 70% or so, though 95% sounds a bit high.  Keep in mind people at these levels are owners, not workers.

You do recognize that owners create jobs, right?  They also take risks to create jobs.  As always, you propose to take away any potential reward for those risks.  Clearly, you didn't learn about the risk/reward relationship when you were in school.

I guess under your scenario, you just tax away the owners' income.  The reality is that this would mean that the owners would never create the jobs in the first place, and there would be a more general impoverishment.

The only good thing about the policies you recommend is that, had they been in place, your family never would have made any money, and you'd be lucky to have a job in Burger King.