The slave whom you cannot drive with the lash to break seventy-five pounds of hemp in a day, if you will task him to break a hundred, and promise him pay for all he does over, he will break you a hundred and fifty.
In a fragment discussing the economics of slavery, Lincoln illustrates how incentives can increase productivity beyond what forced labor achieves.
Share
More from Abraham Lincoln
I am considering, and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper.
The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it?
If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.
Other voices in this conversation
