The planned new tariff is to be slapped on dozens of countries that have allegedly failed to take action to prevent slavery and forced labour.

The United States is planning to impose a 12.5 per cent tariff on goods from Australia, alleging the country has failed to take action to prevent slavery and forced labour.

Anthony Albanese says any tariff on Australian exports to the US is “unjustified and inconsistent” with the free trade agreements between the two allies.

Former Australian ambassador to the US Joe Hockey says Donald Trump is convinced that tariffs are beneficial to the US.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish
    12·
    6 days ago

    For that matter, many states, ALL Red, are still at the Federal Minimum Wage of $7.25, which hasn’t been increased since 2009.

    It can be argued that $7.25 in 2026 is LITERALLY a Slave Wage, especially from the perspective of a corporation or billionaire. At least the antebellum plantation slave owner was expected to provide food, shelter, and clothing for their slaves, as inadequate as it was, but 21st century plantation owners don’t even have to supply that much, and the stipend they offer to cover those expenses is far below the level it takes to provide them. Slave quarters may have been terrible, but at least they weren’t homeless.

    We are already Slaves.

    • eightpix@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      6 days ago

      Don’t forget, there’s more than 800 000 imprisoned people working for the US economy as well. They get paid an average of between “13 and 52 cents an hour”, according to reporting by the Guardian and the ACLU from June 2022.

      “Seven states – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas – pay nothing for the vast majority of prison work.”

      Update

      The latest report from the Human Rights Research Center on this came out on Tuesday, 2 June 2026.

      Map of Prison Pay Rates in United States

      Kaitlyn Andres, “Modern Day Slavery in the United States: Exploring Forced Labor for Prison Inmates”, Human Rights Research Center, June 2, 2026

      “Most incarcerated workers (~80%) work in jobs that maintain their facilities including janitorial duties, groundskeeping, food preparation, and laundry.3 For this type of labor, inmates at federal prisons can earn between $0.12 and $0.40 per hour.” (Andres, 2026)

      So much for keeping up with inflation.

      In January 2025, an insightful report from the Economic Policy Institute states,

      " from fighting wildfires to toiling in the kitchens of some of the country’s most popular food franchises, incarcerated workers perform vital functions across the United States and produce billions of dollars in value… Incarcerated labor is rooted in slavery and bears an especially striking resemblance in the South." (Mast, 2025)

      Now add the 60 000 immigrants, migrants, and refugees kidnapped and imprisoned by ICE since 2025.

      “Tens of thousands of detainees participate in the VWP because it is their only available source of income while in detention and they are often coerced into participating or threatened with retaliation if they refuse to participate.”

      “for-profit companies running America’s immigration centers are permitted to put immigrant detainees to work for just $1 a day, based on a 1950s era law.” (Pasternak, 2026)

      So, basically, this horseshit tariff is pretty rich coming out of anyone in this administration.

    • Doomsider@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      6 days ago

      There are more slaves today than at anytime in history. 50 million to be precise. If you want to add underemployed to this as well (often referred to as wage slaves) that would be closer to 550 million.

      We are slaves to capitalism on a planet that is dying from pollution. We won’t stop or even recognize we have lost around a billion lives to pollution in the last 50 years.