[A. Pole]

Cheap labor isn't coerced

Actually it can be and very often is, under the guise of "voluntary" contract. It can be done in number of ways.

Read some basic Economics - Hayek, Friedman, von Mises, even Samuelson, for Pete's sake.

Hayek, Friedman, von Mises represent a certain ideology. BTW, why this qualification "even" about Samuelson? Are his credentials in "basic Economics" suspect? Why?

[The Great Yazoo]

Hayek, Friedman, von Mises represent a certain ideology...

Yes. It's called conservatism. And you, A. Pole, sound like no conservative to me.

[andy58-in-nh]

Cheap labor isn't coerced
Actually it can be and very often is, under the guise of "voluntary" contract. It can be done in number of ways.

Name one.

Read some basic Economics - Hayek, Friedman, von Mises, even Samuelson, for Pete's sake.
Hayek, Friedman, von Mises represent a certain ideology. BTW, why this qualification "even" about Samuelson? Are his credentials in "basic Economics" suspect? Why?

The economists I named represent Capitalism, not an ideology. Capitalism is an economic - as opposed to a belief - system. Samuelson hedges his general support for markets with a policy preference for certain Government limitations and regulations on voluntary action. My judgment is that many of these limitations (wage and price controls, for example) have proven counterproductive. My preference is for freedom of contract, enforced by rational laws derived from the consent of the governed. Government make-work hacks and union thugs could not long survive in such an environment. Which explains a lot about Massachusetts....