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samanime t1_iy9t0eq wrote

Reply to comment by chrisp909 in Dominican sugar imports tied to forced labor rejected by US by tnick771

The Constitution doesn't say that doing "involuntary servitude" makes you a slave. It is just outlawing both, other than in cases of punishment for a crime.

Being a slave generally means you are treated as the property of someone. You can be forced to perform labor without being considered someone's property.

Also, I was talking in general, plain language sense, not in the sense of a legal definition in a single country...

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chrisp909 t1_iya0ehr wrote

>The Constitution doesn't say that doing "involuntary servitude" makes you a slave.

Correct. As I stated they are two different things.

Involuntary servitude is forced labor that involves a debt.

Slavery is forced labor but there is no debt associated with it. Documented ownership of a person isn't necessary.

You stated that community service isn't slavery. According to the US Constitution it is or can be. It's forced labor so why wouldn't it be?

Sorry if this was confusing for you.

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samanime t1_iya3bwq wrote

Slavery =/= involuntary servitude and slavery =/= forced labor (though slavery can involved forced labor)

All forced labor is not slavery. Community service is involuntary servitude, repaying a debt to society for a crime.

They are different. I'm not the one confused.

And even if the US Constitution said otherwise, that wouldn't alter the plain language understanding of the terms for the whole world. The US =/= the world.

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chrisp909 t1_iyab25r wrote

>Community service is involuntary servitude, repaying a debt to society for a crime.

Under your definition, just being in prison is involuntary servitude. I don't think that's an accurate definition to a lot of people.

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>And even if the US Constitution said otherwise, that wouldn't alter the plain language understanding of the terms for the whole world. The US =/= the world.

Your colloquial definitions may be correct to you or even in some countries / regions but language and colloquial definitions are not apples for apples all over the world.

You != the world.

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