Trump's Tariffs Exposed as 'Literal Slavery' by Wrongly Imprisoned Man
A man who claims to have been wrongly imprisoned for murder argues that President Donald Trump's tariffs on countries engaging in forced labor are hypocritical. Jeremy Busby, a writer and activist incarcerated in Texas for nearly three decades, wrote that America engages in 'literal slavery' by forcing prisoners to work for large companies.
Busby described the conditions he experienced while imprisoned, including guards attacking inmates who refused to perform work details, and prisoners being pepper sprayed for refusing to work. He noted that nearly 2 million people are behind bars in the US, with over half of them held in state or federal prisons where work is compulsory.
Busby argued that prisons effectively enslave their inmates to provide cheap goods and services for wealthy corporations. He cited an example from Texas prisons raking in $58 million from sales of industrial products produced through forced labor in 2022, separate from the reported $51 million in earnings from agriculture.
Economists Dr. Ed Gresser and Dr. Robert Shapiro have also criticized Trump's tariffs as a 'big-government' move that harms the American economy by creating uncertainty.