Hyundai Uses Prison Labor, Media Wonders About 'Wages'
Mainstream media lights upon the 'alleged' use of prison labor by Hyundai's Alabama suppliers, leading to 'stagnant wages' and 'worsening conditions' according to a Columbia University report. The Korea Times notes this practice is 'technically legal' because inmates are 'paid'—a mere fraction of non-incarcerated workers, naturally. This isn't groundbreaking news; it's a feature, not a bug, of a
system where 60% of incarcerated people in the US are forced to work, often for pennies, creating goods from mattresses to military uniforms, enriching corporations while simultaneously depressing free-market wages. So, American workers earn 10-15% less, while the 'legally' enslaved generate profit for multinational giants. One might wonder if the concern is truly for the 'stagnant wages' or
merely the PR optics. When the US carceral state provides a supply of virtually free labor, why would anyone expect 'competitive' conditions? It seems some markets are just freer than others for exploitation.