Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

August 15, 2012

For many years, American manufacturers have protested that China?s use of slave labor gives it an artificial price advantage. While this is true, Chinais not the biggest offender; that distinction goes to the U.S. federal government, which also operates the world?s largest prison system.

CNN recently described how Unicor ? also known as Federal Prison Industries ? is driving small clothing producers out of business. Unicor employs 13,000 inmates ? some of whom receive 23 cents an hour ? to produce uniforms and other clothing for the Pentagon and other federal agencies. Kurt Wilson, who owns Alabama-based American Apparel, points out that his employees receive an average wage of $9 an hour as well as health care and retirement benefits. Not surprisingly, his company ? like others in the same field ? can?t compete with federal slave labor.

In colonial and early post-independenceAmerica, those convicted of property crimes were generally required to make restitution to those harmed by their crimes.

Following the Civil War, a new system was devised in which opportunistic law enforcement agencies would feed non-violent offenders into a penal system hard-welded to government-favored corporations. This system differs from that of Communist China only in matters of irrelevant detail.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.