Don't you think that is their intent all along? To return to the old days of workhouses for the poor and slave labor in all the prisons? Private prisons are already very profitable, so why not squeeze even more profit out of the poor and incarcerated? We peons have no other value or use for them, esp. ones who are too broke to spend as consumers. The dirty secret is the ruling class doesn't even need most of us as consumers anymore, because the top 15% of Americans in wealth spend enough to maintain corporate America's profits and revenue. The rest of us are no longer really required, as workers or consumers. So they would prefer us dead, esp. if we think of making any trouble for them by protesting or not cooperating with the system.