View source for The modern potential for chattel slavery.

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[[Category:Mike Huben's Criticisms]]
[[Category:Slavery|100]]
[[Category:Anarcho-capitalism|500]]
{{DES | des = Modern technology could easily lead to a resurgence of chattel slavery if government doesn't prevent it.  That's a major threat from Anarcho-capitalism. | show=}}
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Modern technology would make control of slaves very simple and economic.  External "electronic fence" devices that are used for dogs could be adapted for humans.  External tracking devices are already used for parolees that are restricted to their homes.  But the really efficient solution is implantable devices.  Those devices could be used for identification, communication, tracking, AND for punishment.  It would be simple to design them to be able to punish, disable, or kill slaves.

It could be easy to identify slaves visually.  Not by the color of the skin as in the antebellum US, but with tattoos, brands, or remotely readable electronic ID's.  Escaped slaves would be easy to identify, and there would be an industry for tracking them down and capturing them, just as bounty hunting works now.

There are lots of claims that slavery would be inefficient, but the fact is that middle-class salaries are grossly inefficient compared to the costs of keeping a slave.  There are claims that slaves don't work as hard as free men, but that is bullshit.  Otherwise slavery would have died out in the antebellum south long before the Civil War.  There are claims that it would be hard to make slaves work at modern skilled jobs: that is also bullshit for several reasons.  In the antebellum south there were plenty of slaves practicing skilled trades.  And modern management techniques keep even disaffected workers productive: imagine if the bosses could add corporal punishments, torture, and familial punishments to their motivational repertoire.

Slavery would be educationally more efficient than free education because the owners paying for it would be able to recapture their investments in education when selling or using their slaves.  For free men, employees have little incentive to invest in education because the employers will not pay them what they are worth; employers have little incentive because the employee might leave before the employer recoups his investment.
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