because wage-based economies
***** what wages?????? they worked for food and a place to live I grew up in the south...
Southern wages had a upper limit thanks to slavery.
Of course you’re not going to argue that fact. I guess you could argue the import, but I see no way to claim it wasn’t significant.
And, of course, having the Southern capitalists being dependent on slavery meant their investment decisions benefitted slavery.
(Again, as today’s capitalist decisions have benefitted China- to the disadvantage of US workers.)
After the North destroyed the South and bought for nothing what was left, the South was a 3rd world, poverty-struck area that couldn’t improve until after WW2.
My Dad left a NC sharecropping situation for the military. A typical event in the South at the time.
A lot of veteran benefits, payments have helped the South.