THE MORNING RANT: The Slippery Slope to (Re)Normalizing American Slavery Keeps Getting Slipperier

In my post earlier this week I expressed my concern that Principled Free Traders pretty much openly express their support nowadays for the use of overseas slave labor in the manufacture of consumer goods imported into the U.S., and what this situational tolerance for slavery portends.

The disturbing end point for this “libertarian” passion for the elimination of labor expense, despite the ongoing need for human labor, is a return to the “peculiar institution” that western nations finally abolished in the 19th century. Principled Free Traders are already quite open about their enthusiasm for the use of overseas chattel labor in the name of increased corporate profit and lower consumer prices. What is the principle that allows free trade libertarians to be comfortable with foreign slavery but not domestic slavery? It seems like a slippery slope.

I also noted how those most passionate about offshoring American industrial jobs tend to be the same people most enthusiastic about opening the U.S. border to an off-the-book, in-the-shadows workforce for those jobs which cannot be offshored. The common denominator is that there is a passion to reduce labor expense to as close to $0 as possible, be it with overseas slaves or with domestic illegal labor.

Isn’t it puzzling that “free market libertarians” who do chest-bumps and grave dances to celebrate American industrial workers losing their jobs are also passionate about importing off-the-book labor to do “the jobs that Americans won’t do.”

It’s all coming full circle now. Slavery is back in the American South, and it’s the perfect confluence of the libertarians’ ideal labor forces – foreign slaves serving as unregulated domestic labor…

“Three arrested in wake of ‘massive’ labor trafficking bust in Georgia” [Atlanta Journal Constitution – 4/12/2025]

Employees were Chinese nationals who had been recruited through a temporary visa program and promised high salaries. Instead, they were allegedly required to work 12-hour shifts, and they were not allowed to leave the factory or their residence. [Assistant District Attorney] Waldo said there were several calls to authorities reporting slave labor-like conditions, WBHF reported.

Libertarians and Principled Free Traders swoon at the idea of being able to control Chinese nationals who work 12-hour days and are prohibited from even leaving their apartments without their master’s employer’s consent, which coincidentally enough was not given. It’s funny how slave owners don’t like to give their chattel any passes from 24-hour control.

The authorities’ arrival at Wellmade Industries in Cartersville, roughly 40 miles north of Atlanta, was the culmination of what an official described as a “massive” labor trafficking investigation. At an April 4 news conference, Steven Schrank, special agent with a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said law enforcement encountered 60 victims of “horrific” forced labor.

Who owns Wellmade?

These sweeps yielded two arrests: Wellmade Industries’ owner, Zhu Chen, and his nephew, Jiayi Chen. A third person connected to the company, Jian Jun Lu, was arrested April 5. All three face felony charges of “trafficking of persons for labor or sexual servitude.”

The operation that Wellmade ran in Georgia is exactly what Principled Free Traders advocate for when they celebrate American jobs being replaced by Wellmade-style slaves in China and elsewhere.

Again, if slavery is wrong when practiced in the state of Georgia, how can we condone the exact same slavery being used to produce goods being sold on American shelves so long as the slaves are located in foreign lands. If re-shoring slavery would result in lower consumer prices, how could libertarians object? They already embrace and endorse slavery, at this point we’re just talking about its geographic location.

As I said, it’s a slippery slope that’s getting slipperier. And to be clear, slavery is an abomination before God that should not be tolerated anywhere. It is beyond despicable that there are “respectable” voices on the right who advocate for the exploitation of slave labor in the name of “free trade” and “lower consumer prices.”

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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