Ellynne brings up:

In the American southwest, settlers from free states bought children from local Indians once it became known that the children were likely to be killed otherwise (selling a child was often the alternative to infanticide or letting them die of slow starvation) but they were also known to drive out or arrest slavers from nearby Mexico.

"A state has the ethics and morals it can afford". Sounds like the settlers were attempting chariable works there. Pay the family for the kid, giving the parents a chance to feed their other children. The settlers now have responsibility for feeding, clothing, etc the child, in a drought prone environment. Everyone has to contribute. So the Indian child works for and with the family.

But why does the Federation keep slaves? Probably for psychological reasons moreso than labor effeciency. We've seen they used robot patrols,so robot labor would certainly be a possibility. The Federation *could* afford to be ethical and moral, but they choose not to. Slavery hangs as a threat over the heads of people who might risk their lives, b ut not their families' well-being. This is a threat used specifically with the military who have the means (spaceship access) to desert. It also gives even the lowest 'free' citizens a feeling of status. Likewise, the bond-slave suggests a person who is in slavery for monetary failure... as an indentured servent might enter a limited period of slave-like status or a man in debtor's prison be allowed to continue working to earn his freedom. Still, the slaves don't seem to make up that much of the population (except on Horizon, where it is being used to keep the population in line) so what else is going on economically that the Federation has patrol robots, but Our Heroes send Vila to do the muck-work on ship instead of designing a little cleaning robot. (Defuse one of Dayna's bombs and put a scrubber ont he bottom) Most Federation sets we see, with the exception of the president's palace are very Spartan. Jenna was delighted by the frivolity of a huge wardrobe room on board Zen. She also was so attatched to her necklace we see her wearing that one piece of jewelry multiple times, but no other. Sarkoff was very protective of the antiques he'd collected. What does this have to do with labor? Well, in our society (modern industrial), we are pretty labor efficient. We use robots to build cars. We have huge machines that stamp metal forms and pour plastic molds... we have goods aplenty for very little manpower. So we convince people they need more and more stuff. Modern society is built on 'wage-slavery', the willingness of people to put out more labor than they should need to to take care of necessities, by selling them on wants. The Federation does not appear to have excess goods. They grow by military conquest, not economic assimilation. Labor then becomes a way of keeping people busy, keeping their minds off thoughts of a more luxuriant past or modern politicing.

These are just thoughts going through my head. I'd need to do a lot of research to build and support this theory, but I find myself thinking the Federation at one point had to switch to a military economy to support a war effort, only to find they could not easily switch back, and that a powerful elite didn't want things to change.