TEST ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by BobT

Over the course of his lifetime, the typical slave field hand received about 90 percent of the income he produced.

Does that include, shall we say, "room and board"?

[BobT]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Does that include, shall we say, "room and board"?

I would think that the 10% of the benefits of their labor could be considered the "profit" derived from their efforts. If the profit of one's labor is kept from him, then that would infer to me that he is a slave.

[BobT]

Were those from memory or do you have links to the citations (like the field hand receiving 90% of the income he generated, for example?)

Thanks for your words of encouragement. I would love to say that 40 years after taking the course that I could have such a thorough recall of the course material. Unfortunately, I am not so wonderfully blessed. I did a quick research of the course material and shared it with all. Since I was not being graded on the topic, I fear I may not have worried about a little plagiarism.

[Cicero]

[quote=BobT]I took a course in collge from a world renound economist, Stanley Engerman. the results of the research he conducted with his associate Robert Fogel eaned Fogel the nobel prize in economics. their work concluded:

Yes you must have!!! I can tell by your punctuation and grammar.

[BobT]

i was told that spelling, punctuation and grammar didn't count. only the thought counted.

[Aliantha]

I bet you get the rum BobT.

[BobT]

maybe six years in college studying economcs will finaly pay off.

[Aliantha]

you're pretty cheap if it's only a bottle of rum you want. lol

BobT

Thank you for your rigour in economic terms .


Some pressure groups have wished to have slavery defined as genocide . Not possible . Why ? As you say yourself , the master's interest was not to kill the slave , but to have the most work out of him possible . We agree on that . As with animals , the slave had to be fed and strawed as cheaply as possible , but fed and strawed just the same . So no genocide .

I beg to differ with what you say about family grouping , however . That may have come later . The concept of the family and therefore the linguistic group was destroyed from the outset . The slaves of the Americas came from many different linguistic and ethnological backgrounds . There was no common language , hence the creole of the Caribbean and the English dialects of the deep South .

But you do not refer to the Caribbean anyway . It may interest you to know , as one who has followed a course in slave economics , that the Black slaves of the Caribbean died faster , and therefore had to be imported faster .

They tended to have more babies in America , so there was less demand for new slaves .

You also know that there is more to this subject than economics . Please tell us how the economist deals with the problem of ethics once he has analysed a given point .

[BobT]

the first day in class the professor had one important point to make clear: our study was to be carefully limited to a clinical study of the SYSTEM of slavery. we were to maintain a detachement from the morals and emotions that attach to slavery. if we were to be successful as scientists we had to remain dispassionate.

the ethics we conserned ourselves with was to maintain the accuracy of our work. the subject being studied was best done justice to when our work was accurate.

those that would follow us would be able to use the facts that we were able to reveal in their pursuit of the truth...thereby our works were good and moral. i believe if the fruits of one's labor are pure, the ethics of one's life is manifest

SIX DAYS TO GO ( ideally one should refer to Ancient Greece and 1960s Saudi Arabia too , as well as present day slavery )

[BobT]

Originally Posted by Buddug

SIX DAYS TO GO ( ideally one should refer to Ancient Greece and 1960s Saudi Arabia too , as well as present day slavery )

AHHH, but is this an ideal world? i think not.

I was , and am , quite clear about academic detachment , BobT . I am an academic myself . I thanked you for the academic rigour you copied from your professor's lectures .

You have been unable to form a conclusion in the humanist tradition . You are an example of one who does not know how to analyse information . You are as bad as those people who think that an advertisement is about telling women they should not worry about their looks .

The ethics of your life are NOT manifest , BobT . You copy , and you do not think . You thought that that economic analysis of slavery was a justification for it .

You THICK BASTARD .

[BobT]

I have tried to concern myself with maintaining a good moral compass of my own. I have been content to concentrate on making myself a person who harms no others. I have said previously that my own judgment of the ethics of the institution of slavery was not an area of discussion. I am the first to admit my personal shortcoming as a philosopher. I am unqualified as an ethicist.

I have provided information from area of study in a wide variety of aspects of slavery.

I would certainly like to maintain further discourse in this area, but we MUST remain civilized and work in a realm of mutual respect. Personally I do not thrive in an atmosphere of animosity.

'fed and strawed' .