“We have long lived in a world where everyday objects embody labor in another corner of the earth. Often we do not know where the things we use come from, or the working conditions of those who made them.” Hochschild, 6
We usually think of slavery as something of the past, something we have overcome. Even though we have come a long way since then, there are roughly 12-27 million people that are still in slavery today which was brought up in class during our discussion on abolition. Between 600,000 and 800,000 are trafficked internationally, and about 17,500 are trafficked to the U.S. It does not help that we are a consumer driven nation, constantly demanding low prices. But if we are not paying full price for the product, then someone else is. The point of slavery is to increase profit with paying little to nothing for labor. We should be making an effort to find where our products are being made, and by whom because we could very well be supporting slavery and not know it.
I read this article a couple months ago about young girls from West Africa who were brought to the U.S., their parents were assured that they were going to receive a better education. Instead they were forced to work long hours in a braid shop, enduring all kinds of abuse while none of their customers knew that they were actually slaves.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/12/02/slave.labor.ring.busted/index.html?iref=allsearch
This article scared me into the realization that while something as simple as getting your hair done could be helping support someone else’s suffering. The majority of today’s slaves are said to be in Asia, where about 9.5 million people are slaves in agricultural, industrial or sex work. Hmm…isn’t Asia where most of our products made? Something to think about.
So intense! I think it's terrifying that we as consumers don't know how and if we are contributing to someone's suffering. You would think by now, as a global society we could outlaw child labor and slavery. It all goes back to a capitalist society where government intervention into the market place is minimal. Also under a capitalist society profit is a first priority. This ideology has to be broken. Social justice, health and happiness should be a first priority. The first step is knowledge. If everyone was aware of what they can boycott in order to save children working as slaves we would only hope they would support the cause.
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Stephanie I especially liked how you inserted the "externalization of the costs of production" which we discussed in terms of the environment in your post when you said, "if we are not paying full price for the product, then someone else is." This is an excellent example of how environmental destruction and injustice are always or have always been intertwined and I think that Zoe is right to point to the priority that is placed on profit within capitalism. As Zoe notes (although child and slave labor are illegal) if we shifted our priorities -things could be different. Nice work!
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