# So, how should I react to the presence of slaves in my city? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 22, 2013, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-should-i-react-to-the-presence-of-slaves-in-my-city/651063 "2013-02-22T07:21:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-should-i-react-to-the-presence-of-slaves-in-my-city/651063/61 "2013-02-23T19:17:54Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > Your figure is definitely low. Are you including Antisocial Personality Disorder in your definition of Sociopath/Psychopath? Because that would be important. Nope. Antisocial personality disorder patients are very different from psychopathic patients, and should NOT be treated the same way. There’s some hope that one can help antisocial personality disorder patients. Psychopaths are not amenable to treatment. The former can be empathetic. The latter cannot. The difference is profound, and at times very disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-should-i-react-to-the-presence-of-slaves-in-my-city/651063/62 "2013-02-23T19:35:47Z")
Then the error is mine in assuming that you were calling Antisocial Personality Disordered people sociopaths/psychopaths. Excuse me. It’s a common mistake. Even in hospital settings when I worked. And while APD folks are treatable, as I mentioned, they do tend to be repeaters. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-should-i-react-to-the-presence-of-slaves-in-my-city/651063/63 "2013-02-23T23:10:42Z")
Shop around first, look at running costs as well as prices. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2013, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-should-i-react-to-the-presence-of-slaves-in-my-city/651063/64 "2013-02-23T23:49:50Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Well, consider [this](https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/displayArticle.aspx?articleid=24334&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1): > > Do not prison labor and profit motive intersect? More blathering. Make a claim and an argument in support of that claim, and then we will have something to discuss. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-should-i-react-to-the-presence-of-slaves-in-my-city/651063/65 "2013-02-25T18:27:38Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > As a taxpayer I have a little different take. I would rather that the larger portion of my taxes go to infrastructure, schools, housing - all things that law-abiding citizens can benefit from. > > How do you see it as “exploitation” to expect lawbreakers to pay part of the cost of their care which was the result of their poor citizenship? Isn’t it human nature that all of us do what we can to support ourselves? Why should prisoners be exempt from this natural effect? > > And, as you note, it is much more healthy for them than brooding in a cell. Tax payers SHOULD pay the burden of incarceration. Functions of the state, whether its building roads, buying tanks, or holding elections, are proper duties that the state takes care of for the benefit of all. When our taxes go to one of those things, its with the understanding that they are used to fund things that, while we may not individually enjoy, benefits society to a degree that we derive some use from it. In this, we are all equally culpable (notwithstanding the breakdown of federal vs. local taxes). Prison labor, if it is being plowed back into the prison system, is not for the equal benefit of us all. If prisoners fund their own detention, and the rest of us benefit from it, then it is exploitation. It would be as if we only make parents pay for schools that non-parents get to use or drivers pay for roads (and I do think taxing things like gas, a specific item, is also different from a blanket tax) that everyone else can walk on. Poor citizenship is not a criteria we should use for these kinds of taxes. Prisons should be paid by everybody equally, and any salaries earned by the prisoners should be either kept in a special fund for them when they get out or they simply cannot earn money by doing jobs. And the alternative isn’t to simply pay them nothing. If they work for the state, then they should get paid, period. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-should-i-react-to-the-presence-of-slaves-in-my-city/651063/66 "2013-02-25T18:49:17Z")
Right now in NC, black men are being forced to pick cotton. Slavery? ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2013, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-should-i-react-to-the-presence-of-slaves-in-my-city/651063/67 "2013-02-25T19:10:15Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I think the slavery argument is a straw man. If I were going to argue against inmates working outside the prison/jail, I would say that it eliminates a job that a free citizen could be doing. Pretty much this. Isn’t unemployment a growing problem? ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-should-i-react-to-the-presence-of-slaves-in-my-city/651063/68 "2013-02-26T06:06:17Z")
In some places, unions have been weakened so much that some public workers are being replaced with prison labor. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-should-i-react-to-the-presence-of-slaves-in-my-city/651063/69 "2013-02-26T06:47:09Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > In some places, unions have been weakened so much that some public workers are being replaced with prison labor. So that’s why the DMV is like that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-should-i-react-to-the-presence-of-slaves-in-my-city/651063.md?page=3)