1379
End homelessness with this one weird trick!
(lemmy.world)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2024
1379 points (98.0% liked)
Political Memes
5491 readers
1614 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
You're missing a critical point. The cost of housing the inmates is borne by the taxpayers. The profit from the labor is reaped by the corporations. It doesn't matter how inefficient it is, all the costs are borne by taxpayers, so it's perfect for businesses.
The cost of housing prisoners is far higher than the cost of housing the homeless. And it isn't as though incarcerated people weren't employed prior to arrest.
Moving a farm worker or a retail clerk to a chain gang isn't economically efficient even discounting the moral atrocity.
It matters immensely. And you can see it in the sector growth of states with high incarceration rates.
The motivations behind this policy aren't purely economic. A lot of it just boils down to fascist bigotry.
The cruelty isn't a means to an end. It is the end itself.
You fantastically missed the point.
From a company's perspective, you have rock bottom labor costs but you can sell your product at whatever price the market will bear.
You're considering "the economy" as a single unit but it's not. The public and private spheres have very different interests, and the private sphere is generally much more powerful.
Piecework by convicts is rarely quality
True, but the margins are still fantastic, despite the lower selling price of the goods due to lower quality.
It doesn't need to be quality.
https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-c6f0eb4747963283316e494eadf08c4e#:~:text=Almost%20all%20of%20the%20country's,hour%20if%20anything%20at%20all.
Who takes the rest? The prison.
Look up what these jobs produce and how they are remunerated.