Inside North Korea's Forced Labor Program
newyorker.com
Inside North Korea's Forced Labor Program
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Re: Inside North Korea's Forced Labor Program
#2Re: Inside North Korea's Forced Labor Program
#3I wonder why we do not use some sort of labor as penalty for misdemeanor, instead of useless incarceration.
You caused $XXX of damage and you have no funds to cover it, you should work for the state until you pay back the sum.
Re: Inside North Korea's Forced Labor Program
#4Absolutely incredible reporting. The risks taken by the sources both at the factories and within North Korea defy comprehension for anybody lucky enough not to fear that speaking out will endanger their family.
Re: Inside North Korea's Forced Labor Program
#5I wonder why we do not use some sort of labor as penalty for misdemeanor, instead of useless incarceration. You caused $XXX of damage and you have no funds to cover it, you should work for the state until you pay back the sum.
There’s some variations of prisoners de facto working for below minimum wage, but that’s now what you meant.
The biggest issue, if we ignore moral values and try to keep it a cold hearted calculation (which I don’t agree with), then you have one big problem: making prisoners a profitable business will encourage imprisoning more people. Economy responds to incentives, and this seems to me like a bad incentive.
Re: Inside North Korea's Forced Labor Program
#6I wonder why we do not use some sort of labor as penalty for misdemeanor, instead of useless incarceration. You caused $XXX of damage and you have no funds to cover it, you should work for the state until you pay back the sum.
Giving the state financial incentives to convict and imprison people has some pretty obvious possible second-order effects. You can see them all over the world, from the growth of for-profit prisons in the US to forced labor in Xinjiang. Once the state or a state-associated entity profits from convictions, they have all the reason in the world to increase the rate of convictions.
Re: Inside North Korea's Forced Labor Program
#7I wonder why we do not use some sort of labor as penalty for misdemeanor, instead of useless incarceration. You caused $XXX of damage and you have no funds to cover it, you should work for the state until you pay back the sum.
There’s some variations of prisoners de facto working for below minimum wage, but that’s now what you meant. The biggest issue, if we ignore moral values and try to keep it a cold hearted calculation (which I don’t agree with), then you have one big problem: making prisoners a profitable business will encourage imprisoning more people. Economy responds to incentives, and this seems to me like a bad incentive.
We’re already there with corrections labor unions lobbying against decriminalizing drugs.
Re: Inside North Korea's Forced Labor Program
#8I wonder why we do not use some sort of labor as penalty for misdemeanor, instead of useless incarceration. You caused $XXX of damage and you have no funds to cover it, you should work for the state until you pay back the sum.
Giving the state financial incentives to convict and imprison people has some pretty obvious possible second-order effects. You can see them all over the world, from the growth of for-profit prisons in the US to forced labor in Xinjiang. Once the state or a state-associated entity profits from convictions, they have all the reason in the world to increase the rate of convictions.
Peeled garlic is almost an entirely prison labor driven industry in China and is exported all over the world
Re: Inside North Korea's Forced Labor Program
#9"Why we fight"
Even with all the problems in the West, with all that's broken at the moment in our end-stage capitalist societies, never forget that the alternative, in almost all instances, is pure terror.
Re: Inside North Korea's Forced Labor Program
#10"Why we fight" Even with all the problems in the West, with all that's broken at the moment in our end-stage capitalist societies, never forget that the alternative, in almost all instances, is pure terror.
Never forget that American Exceptionalism relies on comparing itself to the most mismanaged places in the world, ignoring the existence of developed nations entirely
We uniquely have the resources to be better and more advanced and create a more productive society with those resources, and merely lack the consensus to do so. There is no need to compare ourselves to anyone else to rationalize our incompetencies, consensus failures, or to spearhead development goals.