House elves and some spoilers for Swordspoint WAS: realistic solutions

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 180807

Magpie:
> Ultimately Hermione's switches away from house elf freedom to good 
> treatment for owned house elves. That to me sounds like a shift to 
> the view of slave-owning being legitimate. It's not dealing with the 
> problem of owning the slave but the self-punishment that is repulsive 
> to (some) Wizard owners. It's a problem with the elves that must be 
> fixed, if anything. If Kreacher no longer self-punished would 
> Hermione be perfectly happy with his being owned by Harry and 
> following orders for the Trio? If so, then she's not anti-
> slavery/anti-house-elf-ownership because that's a separate issue.

Carol responds:

Will someone *please* tell me what you think would and should happen
if the House-Elves were freed? In what way would conditions be better?
I see unhappiness and chaos, myself. I *don't* see House-Elves
attending Hogwarts, learning to use wands, and becoming miniature
humans, with all our economic and political problems. What's this
Utopia you envision? All I've seen is this argument:

House-Elves are slaves.
Slavery is bad.
Therefore, House-Elves should be freed.

If they were human, I would agree, even though Emancipation of the
American slaves created as many problems as it solved, with many newly
freed former slaves forced to move to the North and find low-paying
jobs or live in poverty. (Freedom in itself isn't worth much, which is
why economic reform must precede political reform in developing
countries. Freedom without food, shelter, and money equals living on
the street in poverty and misery.)

So, please. Describe this ideal solution to the "problem" of House-Elf
"slavery" in our imaginary WW.

Carol, who thinks that the status quo is vastly preferable to mobs of
unemployed House-Elves begging the wizards in the streets for a few
Knuts to buy food (actually, they'd beg to be taken in and work for
free, if I know House-elves)