By his account, America engages in literal slavery by forcing prisoners to work for the profits of large companies. “I write this from Texas, a state that has kept me incarcerated for nearly three decades and is one of the country’s biggest beneficiaries of forced labor.” More than half of them, approximately 1.2 million, are held in state or federal prisons, where work is compulsory.” In 2022 alone, Texas prisons raked in $58 million from sales of industrial products — such as soap and stainless steel tables — produced through forced labor. He ultimately concluded, “If tariffs are an appropriate response to countries looking away from forced labor, then other countries would be justified in placing tariffs on us.”