eli5: how does wage labor produce more profit than slave labor?

Question

To Start slavery in any form is immoral and needs to be abolished from every corner of the globe.

I am asking this because I heard somewhere that a big factor for the banning of slavery in these industrialized areas of the world (I.e Britain and the Northern US) was motivated by profits because it was better on profits to have paid workers rather than slaves.

That could also be 100% wrong but if it is true then wouldn’t slave labor bring more profit than a paid worker?

In: 0

Answer 1

It is wrong, and most of these comments are grasping at straws. Slavery was abolished primarily for moral reasons. Slave owners benefit enormously from slave labor, no one else does directly. Sure the Northern US got cheaper cotton and Britons enjoyed cheaper tobacco, but in a democratic society someone running on ‘hey, let’s ban slavery’ is an east way to seem like a good person among the other sleazy politicians.