Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Quote of the day - Where did America's wealth come from?

"America would not be the wealthy country it is without slave labor. We would not have our power or wealth if we had not, for a very long time, depended on the unpaid labor of millions of human beings. I feel like I shouldn’t have to spell this out, but maybe I do. America was built by the labor of enslaved men, women, and children. Cotton wasn’t king just in the South. Many of the most productive cotton mills were in the North, as were the insurance companies and other industries that profited off those mills. Without a lot of unpaid labor, those profits would have been significantly less. And we are still depending on the unpaid or underpaid labor of millions of human beings — from prison workers to immigrants to foreign labor. The question of slavery is still with us. America has a legacy of harming other human beings and justifying that harm by glorifying the wealth it brings to a few. Thankfully America also has a legacy of resisting that impulse."

Camille Dungy, The Sun, June 2018, p.7

2 comments:

  1. Capitalism is all about the bottom line. What else is there?

    How's your portfolio performing?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Representative Connors told his campaign contributors that in addition to the huge tax cuts just passed, he was hoping to do more waiving regulations and eliminating red tape that just eats into their profits.

    ReplyDelete

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