24
Sep
2015
Should Whole Foods Be Using Prison Labor?
I don’t definitively answer that question–I’m an economist after all. But I think you’ll have a better way of thinking about the issue after my latest FEE article. My favorite line: “In an ideal society, the term “prison labor” should not strike us as cruel and exploitative any more than the terms “office labor” or “factory labor.””
The real question is, should horses that are forcibly kept behind barns be used for farm labor? I mean, is a diet of crusty hay and stale chickpeas really enough pay? In the next episode of the Tom Woods show, Bernie Sanders joins us to enlighten us on this form of equine exploitation.
In an old TV movie about Gary Powers the Powers character says something like: “Since I was convicted of espionage I was not allowed to do any work while in prison. The Soviets exalted the worker so, not being allowed to work was considered the most severe punishment. They were right about that.”
Prisoners in a free society (that sounds a little odd from a certain point of view) should be able to engage in capitalist activities as well.
It’s an oxymoron, almost like ‘leader of the free world.’
What if the only prisoners are those who have introduced or would introduce imprisonment of others.
My understanding is that the government locked you up, so the government owes you some minimum conditions in a government prison. If the prisoner asks to be transferred to some private prison where you have to work, but perhaps the conditions are better, and there might be educational opportunities, etc. I’m not bothered by that arrangement.
I am bothered by the idea that government can make rules, after which anyone breaking those rules cannot vote out the government anymore. Suppose we made it illegal to be overweight for your height, then all the short, fat people lose their votes and get locked up in camps as manual labour. The remaining voters might find that quite a nice setup.
You do have to ask how ideal a society is, with large numbers of people in prison in the first place. Violence is supposed to be a last resort.
“You do have to ask how ideal a society is, with large numbers of people in prison in the first place.”
Freedom indices such as the Heritage Fpoundation’s economic freedom index do not count number of prisoners. It seems to be a good proxy for something related to freedom to me, yet it is not counted. This indicates to me that if you focus on economic freedom only you are missing something.
The USA has the highest labour freedom of all countries (98.6), yet locks up 10 times as many per capita as Germany, with a labour index of 51.
Clearly someone in prison has somewhat less economic freedom, so a true index of economic freedom would need to incorporate this.
Mind you every index is a bit of a “guess so” exercise.
The issue is exploitation. As Bob Murphy recognises, exploitation would be possible in the prison situation, but prisoner employment is not necessarily exploitative.
“However, we need to be very careful in a situation where there is overt coercion”
I also think we should be careful where there is covert coercion.
Ah but the downside of reintroducing capitalism inside prisons is that it takes away one of my favorite arguments:
Prison is Socialism as punishment.
My favorite phrase in your favorite line: “in an ideal society.”
With that qualification you have a legitimate economic question.