[lelio]

On a deeper level though, regulation and taxation of business in the United States is what drove us into the use of slave labor.

I don't think that regulation or taxation drove people to buy clothes make from cotton picked in the South by slaves before the civil war -- it was price.

And just like before when people thought the cotton gin would end slavery (a machine can do the work of hundreds of people!) people now clammer around the idea that capitalism will somehow move China towards a democracy.

[CobaltBlue]

While Cuba and Iraq prove that sanctions are better at leading dictators towards democracy?

[presidio9]

And just like before when people thought the cotton gin would end slavery (a machine can do the work of hundreds of people!) people now clammer around the idea that capitalism will somehow move China towards a democracy.

How dare they. Everyone knows that this failed to happen in Russia, Poland, Slovakia, East German, etc!

[El Gato]

And just like before when people thought the cotton gin would end slavery (a machine can do the work of hundreds of people!)

And it, along with some somewhat more "disposable" labor imported from China and Ireland, probalby would have, had not folks on both sides of the issue decided it was something for the government to fix, and right now! It would have been cheaper to buy all the slaves and set them free, than it cost the North to fight the war. The long term result would have been much better than what we have now.

Slaves represented a big capital investement, they had high maintaince costs, and weren't especially efficient, requiring much overhead staff, such as overseers. Micks and Chinks were cheaper, and if you worked one to death, why there was another stepping off the boat to take his place. Something like one Chinaman, or Irishman buried, for every mile of track laid.

[elli1]

I don't think that regulation or taxation drove people to buy clothes make from cotton picked in the South by slaves before the civil war -- it was price. Congress passed numerous tariffs on products to protect the industries in the North before the Civil War. Imported cotton cloth carried a tariff (25 cents per yard tariff in 1816) and the South feared that foreign countries would retaliate by imposing tariffs on raw materials produced in the South. Regulation & taxation were significant among the causes of the Civil War.