First of all, Don Pope, slave labor was not "free".
Slaves had to be bought, fed, clothed, and housed
Slave labor was free that's why they were called "Slaves" And no they were not fed, clothed and housed the slaves had to build their own houses, and mend their own gardens to grow their own food. And mend their own clothes from cotton.
And in the north during the time of slavery, their manufacturing-based economy, which did not depend on slavery, was far healthier than the agriculturally-based economy of the south. That's one of the main reasons why the south lost the war.
First of all slavery started before the country even became a country. Im talking about the money that started capitalism came from the very first slave labors. How do you think the North even became Industrialized? From Triangular Trade and the slaves! If they didn't have the slaves to get the raw materials for them to sell to europe america wouldn't have developed.
If unskilled workers were paid more, then prices would be higher, but then people in the workforce would have more to spend, so the effect would kind of cancel itself out and corporations would still make a profit.
Yes but that's not going to ever happen and I bet everyone here knows that. Their risking losing profit from losing customers, It's working fine the way it is for those companies to exploit the minimun wage workers and get rich off them, so why would they change it?
And I still don't see where unemployment is a necessary part of capitalism.
This is the most important part Plaw, If they have a percentage of unemployment so when their current minimum wage workers go on strike and demand higher pay and benefits etc. They can just fire them and hire the unemployed for less! The unemployed are thinking "Hey we don't have to starve now! This pay is better than not having anything at all!" It works perfectly for the companies.
