A closer look
Private corporations save billions of dollars annually by utilizing prison labor to manufacture everything from military helmets to office furniture, paying incarcerated workers mere cents on the hour for their exhaustive efforts. This system perfectly mirrors nineteenth-century sweatshops, except it is entirely legal because the thirteenth amendment conveniently left a massive loophole for forced labor as punishment for a crime. We have built an entire shadow economy reliant on a captive workforce that cannot unionize, cannot strike, and cannot demand minimum wage, while simultaneously wondering why the justice system is so incredibly motivated to keep incarceration rates sky-high. When you buy cheap manufactured goods, there is a distinctly non-zero chance you are enjoying the fruits of modern penal servitude, beautifully disguised as standard corporate cost-cutting measures in a free market
