Would the USA be better today if we had just let the South secede?

[Jim Lane]

85. That's far from clear

Why should mechanized manufacturing undermine slavery? Today in the United States, an employer pays the worker a wage, out of which the worker pays for the necessities of life and (sometimes) has some left over. Take those same jobs and fill them with slaves, under a legal system that protects slavery. Now the employer (who has become a slaveowner) incurs the expenses of the necessities of life, but has no need to provide more, and of course can provide a much cheaper standard of living in such aspects as the quality of the food, clothing, and shelter.

It's hard for me to conceive of slavery persisting into the 21st century. The problem is that it's also hard to conceive how to get from there (independent CSA as of 1861, with slavery a bedrock of its society and laws) to here. An abolitionist movement in the CSA would have been up against formidable economic and political odds.