It is literally the same argument, word for word, that Texans (then part of Mexico) exclaimed when Mexico prohibited slavery. Thus they rebelled. Same argument the south cried, and they too rebelled. It's almost as if this is a recurring argument from slavers.
I've been to those towns in AZ. The world would lose nothing if they went away.
I don't see any similar outcry about places like Jerome that went to shit when their mines disappeared. Of course, in those cases, the only people hurt were the mine workers.
The only businesses I saw in those towns were a lunch counter, the prison, and a shop selling "souvenirs" made by prisoners. Without the prison, there goes 2/3 of your economy (well, probably a lot more than 2/3 unless you pull a serious lunch crowd). So now your town is just a lunch counter in the middle of the desert. If you're lucky, maybe there's a tourist attraction further down the highway bringing travelers who will keep your restaurant open.
"Unions will cause economic calamity that none shall survive."
"Overtime pay laws will cause economic calamity that none shall survive."
"Anti child-labor laws will cause economic calamity that none shall survive."
"Banning asbestos will cause economic calamity that none shall survive."
The people saying this stuff have no floor.
I think the guy is lying, personally; he's obviously attacking an idea he sees as a threat to his livelihood and power structure. There's no way prison labor is literally holding communities together in Arizona (someone from there help me out if I'm wrong).
This dude is employed by capital and capital will rotate this dude's position ad infinitum if he stops attacking anything less than chattel slavery, until some future iterant of this bootlicker builds the Matrix and inmates are harvested for their bioenergy and any choice halves of our symmetric organs; instead of prison tattoos, you leave with only one lung, and only once you've produced at least 75% of your sentenced wattage, you know, truth-in-sentencing reforms, gotta keep the lights on. Thanks to anyone who stuck that out to the end.
Wasn't there just another article here about the police putting some dude on the pavement in Arizona and he got third degree burns on like half of his body?
People trip and fall and hit their head on things and get knocked out for a minute all the time. If that happens to you on a parking lot in Arizona, you are likely to be burned to death before you wake up.