“ No. I’m not a moron.”
I believe but the “question” is ludicrous.
Beginning at the premise.
If they’d ended slavery and paid wages they’d have made more money.
Where did I say that they would have made more money by ending slavery and paying wages?
I didn’t say that, because that isn’t true. They would have had to pay a wage to keep workers and that would have cost the plantation owners more, but it’s unlikely the North would have paid more if they could avoid it. Food is cheap and the board was built in, because it was on the plantation. Paying wages would have meant paying enough to pay for the food and lodgings elsewhere.
According to you, paying for food and lodgings and clothes was more expensive than paying wages that would have covered plus taxation. That premise seems moronic to me.
Lincoln said many times the war was not about ending slavery.
Yeah, because free labor is a lot more expensive than paid labor.