For our next blog, I want you to contemplate SLAVERY. I know we’ve been spending a good deal of time talking about the Industrial Revolution and the impact that had on the working class and the middle class. We’ve been debating the impact of child labor during the 18th century and the modern system of divide and conquer based on race and/or gender. Why pay someone a living wage today, when you can pay someone less, or in the case of slavery, nothing?
I’d like you to spend at least half an hour on the following site –
http://www.freetheslaves.net/Page.aspx?pid=348. It has several videos (everyone should watch Slavery 101), maps and stories. Give yourself time to absorb what you are looking at. When you are done there, check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZTN0TbsRYA on YouTube about modern human trafficking.
How far will people go to get ahead economically? How do we draw the line? Should we?
Hey all, let's get this going....
ReplyDeleteI don’t think slavery in the sense we have described is remotely a good thing. There is simply no way to describe it that would put it out in a positive sense. Nothing gives a human being the right to buy another human being for simple economic exploitation. There’s little to say on this subject, since anyone who argues in favor of slavery is simply perpetuating a system where millions of people daily get their lives taken away from them and turned into mere numbers on a website. Anyone who advocates using slaves is essentially advocating a punishment that is worse than death upon 27 million innocent lives each year. This is worse than Hitler or even Stalin. Hitler caused the deaths of 6-7 million people, Stalin 20 million. If we were to put this in perspective, Hitler, over the span of about 6 years killed 6 million people. Bales estimates that 27 million people are made slaves every year. So if slavery pervades for 6 years, that’s 126 million people. About 20 times more than Hitler.
About child slavery. I personally believe that using children as slaves is even worse than exploiting adults for work insofar as children do not know enough to help themselves and are innocent humans. It only makes it worse to exploit children because those who exploit them know that it is easier because they are innocent and don’t know very much about the world.
Hey everyone this is Alan,
ReplyDeleteI believe that slavery is a terrible thing. Pretty much everyone in the united states thinks that who has a fortunate life. But unfortunately, their are some people out their who have not enough money to feed their family so they get into the slave business. The idea of slavery seems outrageous to us because we are very fortunate but to people who are surviving on scraps each day, they may have to go into that business to support their family. But their are a few people like that in united states as well. The big sweat shops being run in india and under privileged countries are all most as bad as slavery. They children work all day for very little pay.. usually just a few cents an hour. In my opinion i believe that using child slavery is just wildly wrong. They should not be spending all day working in sweat shops for just enough money to buy scraps. The children are the future of this planet, they should be in school trying to get an education and reforming their life. I think that the people in the video brought up a good point. The united states should work on one country at a time trying to irradicate slavery in that specific place. Once that country's slaves are gone, they move on to the next one and hopefully with time all the slaves will be gone. Now i know this will effort would span over many years, but with determination, i believe that slavery can dissapear
Hey this is Austin,
ReplyDeleteI think that slavery is a huge mistake made by our early ancestors. Slavery was one of the most unfair things to happen to human beings ever. People should not be taken and sold to other wealthier people to work and do whatever the slave owner wants for free. It is morally incorrect. Human beings should all be treated eaqualy, there isn't a superior race that is more important and has more controll than others. Children that work in sweatshops in India get payed so little they can hardly survive on. By the large corporations having child labor in 3rd world countries this is almost as bad as slavery. It costs the companies hardly any money and the children are not smart enough to figure out they are being treated terrribly. Under no circumstances should a human being no-matter what race should be treated in such harsh conditions.
@ alan:
ReplyDeletehow efficient do you think such a system will be??? i mean, once you eradicate slavery from one area, and them move on to another, what's to stop that country from just starting up again?
I mean, i guess what i'm trying to say is that these people over at freetheslaves.com have a good idea and all, but i'm just wondering how practical it is.... or possible
Why hello guys-
ReplyDeleteI tend to be very radical in my arguments...just a forewarning.
"how far will people go to get ahead economically?"
Let's face it, in these times of corporate and personal greed, people will do anything to get ahead and secure a rich life. Even rich people already set for life like Bernie Madoff, will con tons of people out of their (normally) not-so-hard-earned money for their own personal gain. Crime is rampant today as well. The recession is still being felt. The minimum wage is at an all-time high, which means less profit for corporations. This leads them to turn to outsourcing, which leads to slavery, not only in men and women, but in children. I think we already have an answer, folks: American corporations, as well as other corporations, companies, small businesses, and even individuals, are driven by a lust for power (money) so far as to enslave other human beings just like them to get ahead.
"how do we draw the line?"
And here is the problem. As far as I can see, there is no easy way out of this debacle without angering some major corporate titans, wealthy people, and even countries. The bottom line is, this issue must be enforced with the help of local police and nonprofit organizations, but the approach will be complicated.
"should we?"
Absolutely. The enslavement of a human is like putting them one step lower on the food chain, just because of an insatiable thirst for money. Slavery is the embetterment of one member of a species over another, something intolerable by today's moral code. Slavery is awful, terrible, disgusting, and __(insert negative adjective here)___, and it must be stopped.
-Gus
I don't understand how people can look at a slave and buy that person. Are they so concentrated on profit that they have wiped out their morals? Do they rationalize or justify what they are doing? How can you even live with yourself after owning a slave or seeing one and doing nothing? Morality is being pushed aside for economics.
ReplyDeleteSlavery is obviously an issue that I presume most of us would agree is bad. But still it continues. Like the website said, people need to stand up and protest, but who's going to admit to being involved with slavery?
In addition, how do we know which products are products made from slave labor? They may be cheap, but is everything cheap made by slaves or children in sweatshops?
Child labor is also terrible, and a vicious cycle as well. Sweatshops hire children because they're cheaper, and the children take the jobs to support themselves and their families because there's no jobs for the adults, because they're given to the children, because the employers want to make the most profit and make wages as low as possible. But if the children are put in school instead, and the adults get the jobs, the children can do better for themselves and the economy might actually thrive. And then maybe those adults will buy products..........
We all say slavery must be stopped. But then why don't we do anything about it?
Slavery-under any circumstance-is unacceptable! It is truly horrendous that families are separated and that men, woman and children are exploited and abused in every way possible. There is no justification for slavery, and in a time where we claim to have come so far, and believe our selves to be civilized and educated, slavery has thrived more than ever. The fact that slavery had a chance to reach such a high point, shows us that we chose to turn the other way. We ignored what was happening around us. Anti-slavery organizations, like free the slaves, are important tools in abolishing slavery, but the fact that we need them in the first place is horrifying. How is it possible that human beings are willing to humiliate, exploit, and abuse other human beings for the sake of a tainted profit? The fact that human beings, around the world, are willing to debase other human beings and their own morals just to earn an extra buck is shameful. Economic profit, it turns out is more important than a human life, and that should shocking.
ReplyDeleteHow far will people go to get ahead economically?
Turns out the real question is: How far won’t people go to get ahead economically?
How do we draw the line?
In all honesty, I’m not really sure. So many different options have been exhausted, and yet slavery is more prosperous than ever. Obviously the ideal situation would be total world cooperation, and that doesn’t seem to be available in the near future. People say its wrong, and that the solution is to abstain from purchasing slave produced goods, but that can be pretty difficult when you are unaware of which products are produced by a slave or a paid worker.
Should we?
Duh! Of course we should its WRONG! Governments, and military, and law enforcement need to play a larger role in eradicating this pandemic, because slavery truly is worldwide disease. The only way to eradicate a disease is to use a vaccine, and the only vaccine for slavery is global involvement and fervor.
In today’s extremely competitive economy, companies are doing whatever they can to get ahead. This sometimes involves outsourcing labor to other countries in order for a cheaper cost of labor. However, some companies go one step further and depend on slave labor. I believe that any form of slave labor is wrong and unnecessary, no matter what state the global economy is in. Companies may be concerned for their profit margin but this is not even close to justifying the use of slave labor. Slave labor is inhumane, unfair, and just plain wrong. A minor gain in profit is not worth a human life.
ReplyDeleteTo me, slave labor is not only labor that leaves workers unpaid, but any unfair work in general. For example, I believe most child labor (in third world countries) is essentially slave labor. Sure, the children are being paid, but they have to work in horrible conditions and the amount they make is minimal and almost close to nothing. Some may argue that at least they have jobs and make a salary even if it is minimal. Instead of working in sweat shops, these children should be in school learning. This will be much more beneficial to them in the long term.
While some people are aware of the problem of slavery in the world, most people in the U.S. are not informed of all the facts. If they are aware of the moral issue of slavery, many aren’t doing enough to help stop it.
@ everyone: you guys all clamor for stuff to be done, but the biggest problem is that no one can agree on the best way to do it, no?
ReplyDeletei mean, according to alejandra, the best way is global involvement, and unite everyone.
arielle wants to put these kids in school, and gus just thinks it's complicated.
i mean, yes, we can sit around and talk about how bad it is, but that doesn't truly give the topic justice. In order to fully discuss the topic, we need to talk about *ways* to stop it.
I personally think that global cooperation won't work, since if it does it will have already happened. Also, too many countries are willing to overlook these atrocious crimes because their governments are too corrupt to do anything about it.
The only efficient way to attack slavery is to put economic embargoes on the imports and exports of slave made items. Anything else won't work since these people are driven only by the greed for money. Therefore, the only sufficient way to attack them would be attack them in the money purse.
Slavery is just horrible. Forcing someone to work, threatetning them and leaving them penniless is unethical, inhumane, and cruel. How can a human being be a piece of property? What gives the persons involved in selling/buying slaves the idea that these people don't have feelings, thoughts, emotions, and needs like themselves? I know I could never force someone to work for me like this.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there are many who do not have the same moral values, and they have the mentality that it's okay to do this. They may see that it's much more economical to have someone do something for no money instead of a wage. As long as one's desire for money triumphs their morality, he or she may participate in slavery.
Slvery must stop. These people are not being granted their human rights. going back to locke's idea of life, liberty, and property, what are these slaves getting? they don't have liberty, being forced to work. they don't have much property, if any, because they are poor and don't earn money. an do they even have the right of life? i say no. Being forced into anything and beaten shows they have no choice. I think the right to life includes the opportunity to be happy and do what you want. slaves don't have that chance.
it's a hard task to do away with slavery in the world. one option would be to find a way to make the slave sellers/buyers feel the impact of their actions. if we could get to them and make them see...but I don't think it will be that easy to change them. we could also help he ones that are 'tricked' into coming to aother country for money/job by letting all of them know that they will very likely be tricked before they go along. With so many slaves in the world, and more being enslaved, it's a very tough task to remove slavery from the world. Hopefully somehow it will be gone someday.
-jake
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThroughout history slavery had been the driving force behind many powerful economies. From the pyramids to Roman aqueducts to the entire textile industry of the 18th and 19th century. Slavery has been instrumental in economy as long as civilization has existed. Today is no different. Personally I would not like to be a slave, and I would like to see a world without slavery. While I would not go as far to say that no human is free until we are all free, I would say " I sure wish more people with potentiol didn't have to be slaves. " What I'm trying to convey about my opinion is that slavery is bad, it's horrible, but it's also a little inevitable. However, the modern age brings promise. I think that enough people at this time care about human rights enough to break this cycle. And to do it I think we need to first realize that slavery is not something that takes place far away. If we REALLY want to make a difference there needs to be boycotts across the board. We would have to give up things like chocolate, sugar, clothing and even paperclips. This of course would be detrimental to the economy and upsetting to our comfort but after a while the economy would come back up strong as ever and hopefully slave free. The thing about this though, is the question of " is it worth it?" Are we willing to sacrifice so much in the name of human rights that we ourselves already have, I personally could go either way. While I would love to see a world where there are no slaves I don't know that I'm willing to sacrifice what it would take to get there.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@ Justin's third post, specifically the last paragraph.
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree that placing embargoes on imports and exports of slave made items would put a serious dent in the slave industry. However, to play devil's advocate, I just don't see what's in it for the participating governments. The issue of buying slavery made products is a moral and ethical one, not an economic one. It makes more sense economically to have slave-labor, and looking through history governments tend to act in their own economic interests over their ethical ones. While I agree that embargoes should be placed, I just don't see why a government would do something like that unless the public was screaming for it. Now how to get the public to be aware of things like this is a different issue that I really havn't given that much thought to yet. If you have an idea please share.
For those who say that freeing slaves is in our economic interest because freed slaves will have the oppurtunity to buy american products, I disagree. Odds are people coming out of bondage would still be relatively poor, and not thinking about buying american cars. The quality of life would be improved from that of slavery, but I can't imagine a significant amount rise up to wealth and buy enough american products to offset the money lost when they were freed.
@ Justin:
ReplyDeleteYou say the only way to stop slavery is to place embargoes on slave-made imports, but that has not been a solutionn either. It has been tried before, and failed. The fact is that erradication needs to start within. But, corporations are not willing to hire workers and provide decent pay and benefits when they can get cheap or free labor. After hundreds of years and hundreds of movements the slave trade is still here, because the slave drivers are still here. The only way to abolish slavery is to attack these slave drivers. Sure you can attack their "purse," but they will simply take there business elsewhere, which is what they've done. i.e: when Great Britain and the U.S. began the movement against slavery in the 1800's slaves were taken to Cuba and Brazil instead. So, any other ideas?
I feel that in today’s economic situation slavery is a key role in the mass production of many of our daily products, and that is simply wrong and monstrous to do. It is pathetic that it has taken since the B.C. era to realize that slavery, though effective, should never be tolerated and is never OK to utilize. It comes down to the fact that not everyone in this world is as morally firm and educated as we Harvard Westlake students are. They view taking a 10-year-old boy and making him weave the entire day, and torturing him if he does not complete his job fast enough. Also these leaders and companies view maximization of their profit as more important than somebody else’s life. In their minds $$ is the most important factor and they don’t care what they give up to obtain it. Slavery will always be around as long as big companies are. If Nike decided to only produce their shoes in the Americas, they would not be able to find workers, and those workers would educated enough to form unions and demand better working conditions and insurance and things like that; which all cost lots and lots of money for the company. And if all Adidas was using slave labor in factories in Malaysia and they didn’t have to pay any of those things they would surpass Nike in product revenue and could potentially buy out Nike. So in the mind of a business owner you would have to use slave labor in order to keep your company. The only idea I have for stopping slavery is to leave it up to the people in those villages that have their kids taken from to revolt and raid factories, like that one group did. But as long as big business is here, so is slavery, and I don’t see us getting rid of big business any time soon.
ReplyDelete@jake
ReplyDeleteIn your passage you talked about making the buyers feel the impact of their actions. I feel that they already know exactly what they are doing and that what they are doing is completely morally wrong, but they are driven by greed. But I do kinda agree with your idea, how do you think we could make them feel the true impact of their actions, other than enslave them?
@ everyone
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your posts, we all are seeming to look for a way to stop the slave "owners" from using slaves. As I said before, and many of you said, these people are greedy, and money hungry, and will use slaves if it is in their interest. Maybe the answer to stopping slavery is to make it disadvantageous or tedious in some way - to make the owners not care for them anymore. This way I'm not sure yet, because free labor is better than non-free labor. Maybe it could be in the quality of products made by slaves being worse?
or.. the government could start putting pressure on the companies and potential slave owners. They could make a very serious consequence and have periodic checks/reports. This pressure may make the owners realize that the benefit of slaves does not outweigh the consequences of being caught with slaves. Just an idea.
-Jake
Hi this is Royce
ReplyDeleteFocusing on slavery, I believe ,like almost everyone else, that slavery is at the very least, inhumane. In today's struggling and competitive economy, many companies rely on the use of other people to become subjugated to them. This goes against "equality" part of our Constitution, and not only that, it is just immoral. Every human has the right to lead a happy and free life. No human has dominance over any other human.
However, that is not the case in today's society. Though not as severe as before, slavery is still an issue. People have allowed themselves to be corrupted to the point where they try to justify their greed. They try to rationalize the irrational. Selfishly and almost willingly, they have reduced the world to tatters where they bring in slavery and just call it "labor".
In terms of completely abolishing slavery, I believe the only way to do it is to change society and human nature. We are so morally corrupted by greed and vanity. Though I do not think there are ways to completely stop slavery, I do think there are approaches to reduce the amount of slavery. First of all, I believe we should strengthen our borders so that illegal immigrations will not be a problem. Most illegal labor/child labor stems from immigrants that are looking for jobs to support themselves. If we strengthen our borders, this issue will greatly diminish. However, this is just a thought coming from run-of-the mill high schooler :). But I do hope we can make abolishing slavery once and for all a reality someday.
Hey Jake,
ReplyDeleteIn your comment you said that government could hold checks and reports in an effort to make people realize their greed.
However, like Cameron said, people are aware of their actions. They just think that they can justify their selfishness. I don't see governments interfering with business (some may argue it goes against searches and seizures, or privacy invasion). I think the only way to really abolish slavery is to abolish our greed as humans. I'm not sure how we can change human's corrupt nature. But it was still an interesting point.
in defense of my proposition to place embargoes on slave made products:
ReplyDelete(note: for the sake of ease of argument, i'm going to use country A as the country who places the embargoes and country B as the host country for the companies who use slaves)
you guys ask what the benefit to doing such a thing would be to the participating country. Well here's a few reasons:
1. When you place embargoes on slave made products, it forces companies either to pay their employees fair amounts in those host countries, or to take their business back to where they were, since it is now not economically viable to be in those countries. Either choice is still helpful to the country using the embargoes. If a company is forced to pay their workers fair wages, that boosts the local economy, raising the soft power of the country using the embargoes. If you have a boosted economy, especially in countries with high slave usage, you help stop this cycle of poverty since not only are the kids no longer being used as slaves, the parents become viable workers since the companies have to pay fair wages. They can't pay kids less and use kids since it is just as economically viable to pay the parents the same amount. So child labor would decrease, and ideally they would start getting an education, which is a good thing.
Now, if the companies move back to country A, then that is obviously good for country A since more jobs are created. I'll agree though, this is a less likely choice.
2. Another reason country A might want to stop slave labor is for the inherent soft power benefits. For those who don't know what soft power is, wikipedia gives a definition I quite like:
"Soft power is the ability to obtain what you want through co-option and attraction. It is in contradistinction to 'hard power', which is the use of coercion and payment."
For example, using soft power to influence kids to do what we ask them to do would be like dropping tons of PS3's and giving them cool toys, making them like us, and do what we ask. Hard power would be us pointing a gun and forcing them to do it.
Now, if Country A puts economic embargoes on slave made items, the slaves will obviously like us, and therefore would be a direct influence in that country, since the power is always in the people. If a large percentage of the population of a country likes Country A, then the politics of Country B will more likely than not be in favor of Country A. Also, stopping the use of slaves makes the rest of the world like us, since everyone doesn't like slaves, at least in principle. Our allies would be more supportive of our actions since country A would have gone out of her way to stop atrocious crimes worse than the Holocaust.
3. Another reason economic embargoes would be good for country A would be because if you ban all slave made imports, there is naturally going to be a greater demand for Country A made products, since there is now less competition for those same products. To give an exmaple, imagine if all Japanese and European cars were banned from being sold in the US. Naturally, more people would be buying Fords and Chevy's since there are no competing brands like Toyota, Honda, BMW, VW, etc competing for those same consumers. Therefore, Country A's internal economy would improve in the long run.
4. As to why economic embargoes is the best choice: The people using slaves are in it for one reason, money. If we take away a large percentage of their profits, and encourage others to take out the rest of their profits by just not buying their items, then they would be forced to change their ways if they want to stay in business. It is the most direct approach aside from invading those countries and using hard power to free those slaves, which would bring on a whole host of problems....
I agree with Justin in that the only way to stop slavery is through the use of embargos and tariffs. There is no other way to stop slavery because there will always be competition among companies in the global market and they will always turn to the cheapest form of labor…in many cases this means slavery. We cannot place an outright ban on slave products because this would cause many necessary products that aren’t made with any type of other labor to be unavailable. Instead, governments need to raise the price of slave made products above that of non slave made products. This would encourage more people to purchase products that aren’t made by humans being horribly taken advantage of. It doesn’t benefit the government if people are buying slave made products from another country. If the government places a ban of these types of products, there is a higher chance that people will buy products made in their own country which would spur the economy. If the companies wanted to increase their revenues, they would have to switch to non-slave labor to increase profits. The public probably wouldn’t be happy at the rise in prices but this is the only way to discourage slave labor.
ReplyDeleteThe other way for putting an end to slave labor would be the workers refusing to work anymore. However, there is close to zero probability that all the workers, including children, will refuse to work. If not everyone refused, than the companies would just hire the people that were willing to work for next to nothing or nothing.
Hi, its sami
ReplyDeleteI believe slavery is an incredibly horrific way to achieve what is necessary. Whenever someone hears the word slave, of course they think that it is something that is tremendously unacceptable, but it has never been changed. Even so, the slave world today, is a substantially successful one. The economics of it all seem to have a favourable outcome of whoever is involved, like the children making Nikes, which is a worldwide company. We all have huge sympathies for the harsh punishments of slavery, so I wont dwell on that. In the sex trafficking video we all watched, there was one moment that stuck with me. It was a moment where I realized that some of these helpless children have been brainwashed, so they don’t know what they are doing. The moment was of a little girl being asked if she could give “yum yum” (oral sex) to a man, and she replied, “yes, yes, my yum yum is good.” I know the terminology sounds silly, but ignore that. There was no sound of unwillingness in her voice. That is a frightening fact, and the fact that there are people that are completely willing to sell little girls to sex trafficking, is just as horrible as the brainwashing. Karl Marx’s theory that money was the reason for everything sounds pretty dead on here, because whom in their right minds would do things like this for fun?
@ Jakes @ eveyrones post
ReplyDeleteI think that making the buying/selling/using of slaves disadvantageous is exactly what we should do. Money is the fuel of the slavery world, so if there was a way for the products to make less money, maybe the owners would feel like slaves are not the best way, maybe like a “smoking kills” type sign on a product but instead saying that that product was made by slaves. I know the product companies wouldn’t put up these signs but maybe there could be a fine to the company if they don’t put this sign on their products. Also, there could be those “checkups” that jake had said, so that they could be fined again. The people that do the check up’s could make sure that the products have that “this product was made by slaves” sign. Money needs to be the main thing, because if they keep having to pay money for fines and things, they will lose money, and then maybe think that legal labour is the best way to go to them. Also there could be people that put the signs on products
THIS IS SAMI
I agree with Justin in that tariffs and embargoes would probably very effectual. Making slave labor more expensive to use than honest labor should definitely encourage companies to switch and make more of a profit.
ReplyDeleteI think that to stop slavery, laissez-faire capitalism needs to go. Tariffs and embargoes and not free trade should be enacted, overseen by the government to look after human rights. If the major companies using slave labor act in their own self-interest, they will continue using slave labor. This "invisible hand" is acting against human rights, and thus should be stopped. If you put tariffs and embargoes on products made from slave labor and it simply isn't profitable for companies anymore, the companies will continue to act in their own self-interest and do whatever is most profitable, and hopefully the tariffs would make honest labor a smarter choice in terms of economic gain.
Also, @Richard, you're right. If all slave workers and potential slave workers rebelled, the slave owners would have no choice but to stop. However, to organize something like that on such a large scale sounds next to impossible. Even if all the slaves and potential slaves in one region rebelled, I'm sure the slave owners would just get slaves from a neighboring region. How would they communicate? I think that's where the charities and anti-slavery organizations come in. They should have better resources and communication and could connect the slaves better. Of course, it would still be very difficult to organize a global slave revolt.
Hi its alan @ jake and everyone
ReplyDeleteTo respond to jake's theory on trying to make everyone see the slaves actually working to the bone to just make a pair of socks or something is a very good idea. If the people who are buying the products that have been manufactured by slaves can just see the type of work put into it, they might change their mind and buy from another company. Also to everyone i think you all have great ideas and that the general idea that im getting across from your comments are that you all think that it will be a very tough jobs. I like the ways that you think of to fix slavery
Hey Everyone, its Sam.
ReplyDeleteSlavery is probably the most demeaning, terrible thing any human being could do to another. Everything is horrific, from the simple idea of one human having complete mental and physical control over another to the treatment of the human to achieve such control. It is even worse in a child’s case. The innocence of children makes them easy to brainwash, like the situation in Sudan. Child slaves are so easily manipulated that they can learn to like what they’re forced to do, such as the girls in human trafficking. Slave owners can not only gain cheap profit from children but also create a bigger threat to humanity, if their slaves survive.
Anyway, everyone knows that slavery is bad, awful, and the one of the most horrific ideas in history. We are also aware of the atrocities of child labor and child slaves. What I was NOT aware of was how many people are enslaved today. I was shocked by the whopping 27 million people still suffering. I was aware of the extreme difficulties of Africa, India, and other countries, but I was surprised by the number imported into the U.S. It seems so backwards for a country that has come such a long way. I am sickened with the idea if it happening so close to us and that we use so many slave -made products without even knowing it.
This is Sam
ReplyDeleteSlavery is probably the most demeaning, terrible thing any human being could do to another. Everything is horrific, from the simple idea of one human having complete mental and physical control over another to the treatment of the human to achieve such control. It is even worse in a child’s case. The innocence of children makes them easy to brainwash, like the situation in Sudan. Child slaves are so easily manipulated that they can learn to like what they’re forced to do, such as the girls in human trafficking. Slave owners can not only gain cheap profit from children but also create a bigger threat to humanity, if their slaves survive.
Anyway, everyone knows that slavery is bad, awful, and the one of the most horrific ideas in history. We are also aware of the atrocities of child labor and child slaves. What I was NOT aware of was how many people are enslaved today. I was shocked by the whopping 27 million people still suffering. I was aware of the extreme difficulties of Africa, India, and other countries, but I was surprised by the number imported into the U.S. It seems so backwards for a country that has come such a long way. I am sickened with the idea if it happening so close to us and that we use so many slave -made products without even knowing it.
@cameron
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and your point about how large companies stay in business. They would not survive if they hired workers in the U.S. These companies really only work if their working force is extremely low budget. However, I think that just because we need business doesn’t mean we need slave labor to support those businesses. I think it would be up to the owners to be sure and at least pay their workers a small amount and ensure safe working conditions. I also think they shouldn’t hire children. This seems so far fetched because big businesses won’t do that, and from an economic standpoint it is completely impractical. However, people in the U.S. might be willing to pay a little extra if they knew the conditions of the people and children making their shoes or toys. It’s nearly impossible from an economic product, but from a human perspective its humane, fair, and legal.
~Sam
I appreciated your thoughts on this blog. What I am realizing more and more is that I desire to hear how you feel as much (if not more at times) as I desire to know what you think. I believe we spend so much time in the "thinking" mode of things that it gets easier to go right into "solution" mode and we don't necessarily spend time recognizing the impact of something on us personally. I remember watching the young girls and like Sami, I was horrified. It's clear that to make money they have to act as though this is something they want to do -- in the end I feel this is one of the most damaging aspects of human trafficing. it's insanity. If you can -- on the next blogs and in class, let's also contemplate how we feel about something. Our book won't make it easy for us -- in fact, much of the way we are expected to understand history comes without "feeling." I'm inviting us to bring it back.
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