Comments by "Seven Proxies" (@sevenproxies4255) on "The Twists and Turns of American Protectionism" video.

To say that the southerners had no labour costs doesn't really add up with fiscal facts. You can actually find detailed information of what the price of a slave was, and the price for their upkeep. A single slave was a pretty significant cost compared to hiring a farmhand. It was a kind of investment that took many years to pay itself off. Naturally, the major cotton farmers had many slaves who had already paid themselves off. But there was still the issue of clothing and feeding the slaves, as well as making sure they didn't die due to diseases and injuries, along with making sure that the slaves didn't escape.
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@kyriss12 That's not true. People will still do grunt labour for payment, especially in agrarian societies where most people will be uneducated and thus unqualified for more advanced and industrial work methods. Given the choice between starving or working the fields most people will choose to work the fields, without needing to be forced through slavery to do it. The institution of slavery or serfdom is only created to benefit the landowners by making sure that all profits of the agrarian work always remain with them and preventing the labourers from improving their station and thus threaten the landowners position.
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@kyriss12 People never benefitted from cities though. Only the elites did. Which is why they had to enslave people to build them in the first place.
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