have a far greater sense of self-worth than welfare dependants, since they would be valued pieces of personal property performing useful and helpful tasks. In slave states before the US Civil War, masters loading ships employed Irish free labourers in the holds, where they were in danger of injury, and used slaves on the wharves, because slave owners would not risk injury to their valuable slaves. Slaves have thus been treated as more valuable than free-labourers in the past, and will be more valued again. Voluntary slavery would not in many instances be radically dissimilar to the sort of life endured by housewives during the first half of the twentieth century, before the upsurge of feminism. Some housewives then complained that they too would have liked ‘wives’ of their own, if only it were possible. Voluntary slavery could revive the housewife in a more politically correct, non-sexist form. Since men and women alike could own slaves, rich women too could have male ‘wives’ (that is, domestic and sexual slaves). What was once only a feminist fantasy could become a reality. Men who preferred sexual slaves to partners with minds and resources of their own could purchase a slave rather than treat their spouses as such. Men and women would be equal under the slave system: they would be equally able to own slaves; and equally entitled to opt for slavery.Voluntary slavery would also diminish demands on our public welfare systems, which are being wound back under pressures to cut expenditures and lower taxes. Just as many countries seek to partially privatise support for the elderly through superannuation schemes, so support for the unemployed and indigent could be partly privatised through slavery. Slaves would be securely maintained by the rich in return for unpaid service. By lessening the welfare drain on the public purse, slavery would help our economies become leaner and meaner. This would generate a virtuous ci...
