>It probably is more connected to keeping wages low and unions under
>control. If workfare workers and prison labor are subsidized by the
>government, they do the work for less than the "regular" worker (in some
>cases threaten their jobs) and in turn this drives the wages down and
>preserves social control, does it not?
There's a fiscal angle too. In NYC, where we have around 100,000 people doing workfare, they've replaced unionized parks and sanitation workers. The cost to the city is something like 25 cents an hour. Money saved can then be passed out in tax breaks to places like the New York Stock Exchange and CBS. States are also trying to make money on prison labor.
Doug