We are not there yet. But the author makes the case that our nation is headed that way.
In the 1970s, the US began loosening restrictions on prison labor while simultaneously starting to attribute homelessness to mental illness and addiction (and ignoring economic factors). Forty-plus years later and those two parallel tracks of neoliberalism are merging and resurrecting the 19th century Victorian workhouse.
With the number of homeless continuing to rise in the US, municipalities, states, and the national government are faced with the task of doing something about a problem that’s apparently just too hard to solve. As with most any response to the fallout from neoliberalism here in the land of the free, the US comes equipped with a hammer in search of a nail that will profit the powerful and well-connected.
US prisons that for decades have used forced labor will increasingly include the homeless among their ranks as the US Supreme Court-sanctioned criminalization of homelessness gathers momentum, and states like California return to “tough on crime” policies with the stated goal of ridding the streets of the unhoused.
The criminalization of homelessness is an easy solution that means the fact we have turned a basic human necessity over to market forces goes unchallenged. That means doing nothing about:
Private equity buying up single-family and multi-family housing, which means a lack of affordable housing.
Central bank monetary policies that make the rich richer while mostly hurting everyone else.
A healthcare system that frequently bankrupts people.
A lack of a social safety net.
imprisoned laborers have no minimum wage, no overtime, no unemployment, no workers’ compensation, no social security, no occupational health and safety protections, and no right to form unions and collectively bargain.
Wow a PERFECT workforce. A JC’s dream!
Just like the German work camps (Concentration Camps), Russian work camps (Gulags), Japanese work camps, Chinese work camps and many other authoritarian works camps. There were mostly political prisoners, trans prisoners, undesirable ethnic prisoners and undesirable religious prisoners in these work camps.
It can go even farther. The 13th admendment did not totally abolish slaverly as many people assume. It reads in part, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States…” so it would be constitutional to enact laws which sell people into slavery when they are convicted of a crime.
The problem with slavery, is the “JC” makes a capital investment, in buying the slave. With the system the US has now, the slaves voluntarily arrive, under their own power, to work. And, as there is no capex involved, the slave is expendable, casually tossed aside when unable to work. Additionally, when you own a slave you need to provide food and housing. With the USian model of capex-free slavery, the state provides food, medical care, and housing, so the “JC” is not “burdened”. See “work requirements” for welfare and Medicaid.
Not to mention three square meals a day, a safe, comfy place to sleep, and access to health care. A reasonable solution to the problem. But costly. Guards not well paid. No pets.
The idillic country side mental health hospital might be better. Or a community of small homes with access to services nearby and adequate law enforcement to minimize crime.