Poll of the Day > What's worse: Buying Slaves or Selling Slaves?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Topic
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Stealing slaves.
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You wouldn't download a slave, would you?

being slave
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Not that either are good, but selling slaves implies you kidnapped or captured them against their will to be sold into slavery, so I guess that's worse.

Kind of like how I think drug dealers are worse than drug buyers.
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TigerTycoon posted...

Not that either are good, but selling slaves implies you kidnapped or captured them against their will to be sold into slavery, so I guess that's worse.

Kind of like how I think drug dealers are worse than drug buyers.

I think it's a little different here, though, when you look at which side really got the best of that deal centuries down the line. The buyers kinda' came out way ahead, so it's hard to say the sellers were worse when they ultimately didn't benefit nearly as much.

I mean, yeah, it's easy to say that now because of hindsight, but still, silly to just ignore the obvious hindsight.
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My coin flip says that buying is worse.

Buying them cause you are forcing them to do things they might not want to do.
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Tardis2015 posted...

Buying them cause you are forcing them to do things they might not want to do.

Pretty sure that selling them involves forcing them to "be sold", which is something they might not want to do either.
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Selling, since you're taking a more active role in the procurement process. Hell, the ones who didn't buy the sales for resale were the original kidnappers.

Golden Road posted...

TigerTycoon posted...

Not that either are good, but selling slaves implies you kidnapped or captured them against their will to be sold into slavery, so I guess that's worse.

Kind of like how I think drug dealers are worse than drug buyers.

I think it's a little different here, though, when you look at which side really got the best of that deal centuries down the line. The buyers kinda' came out way ahead, so it's hard to say the sellers were worse when they ultimately didn't benefit nearly as much.

I mean, yeah, it's easy to say that now because of hindsight, but still, silly to just ignore the obvious hindsight.

Did they, though? Most of the buyers' families aren't exactly prosperous now and, in general, not every slaveholder was prosperous in the first place. A lot of the sellers -- particularly the financiers -- were extremely profitable at the time and, when the trade ended, they had generally high liquidity to move into something else. The slaveholders tended to be tied to the same land which was automatically less profitable. Keep in mind that Ben Affleck had a slave-owning ancestor who didn't leave him with wealth, just embarrassment.

Tardis2015 posted...

Buying them cause you are forcing them to do things they might not want to do.

You mean because they wanted to be kidnapped and shipped across the world? >_>

Also keep in mind that some sellers *were* owners offloading their excess slaves, breaking up families in the process.
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Buying.
They're feeding money into the system.

Plus it's literally owning people, and all of their children. Which most people consider bad nowadays.
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shadowsword87 posted...

Buying.
They're feeding money into the system.

Plus it's literally owning people, and all of their children. Which most people consider bad nowadays.

Good point about feeding the system. I was going to say selling was worse and buying better because you could buy their freedom but then you pointed that out. Now I'm sad.
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Selling. Even if no one was buying them, and thus there's no market for it, you can put them to work yourself.

TigerTycoon posted...

Not that either are good, but selling slaves implies you kidnapped or captured them against their will to be sold into slavery, so I guess that's worse.

Kind of like how I think drug dealers are worse than drug buyers.

Not necessarily. Some people would (often temporarily (if they managed to survive long enough)) go into slavery to pay off a debt. Still doesn't make it right, but there was that.

Also, there true scum of the earth, the humans that sold their own children into slavery. So no kidnapping or capturing there...
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VeeVees posted...

being slave

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