Posted on 12/30/2013 5:18:21 PM PST by dontreadthis
BTW, just ran across a fascinating study about the eternal argument over whether slavery was a profitable and viable institution in 1860, or was just about to go into decline, making was unnecessary to get rid of it.
The authors maintain an admirable, though somewhat creepy, detachment from the issues involved with the morality of the institution, examining only the economics.
Their conclusion is that slavery for most of the 1800 to 1860 period provided ROI at least equal to alternative methods of investing capital. Also that the institution showed none of the tell-tale signs of one in decline or about to start declining.
http://www.nber.org/chapters/c0606.pdf
You have obviously not read my posts. The source is highly suspect for a liberal slant because that is how he makes his money. I do not accept synthesized information from such a source as “truth”.
No one is defending slavery. My only point is that to say the slaves were 50% of the assets of the South is incredulous. Now, if your recent discovery is true, you have dropped the market value of the slaves even further as there marginal rate of substitution has been marginalized. In other words, if slavery was not profitable, the value of slaves drops like a rock.
I am unclear why you think the article posted shows slavery and value of slaves to be lower than expected. The article actually argues against those who claim slavery was unprofitable, demonstrating that it was considerably more profitable than other potential ways of investing capital.
ROI varied from around 10% to 16% from 1830 to 1860, and tended to increase towards the end of this period. Most people today would consider that a damn good return, especially in absence of capital gains tax.
IOW, value of slaves was increasing, quite dramatically, over this period.
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