Why do we still ACCEPT slavery?

[mopaul]

One of the greatest experiments in human liberty and democracy is America's abolition of the institution of slavery. Many nations have practiced it, all through history. The exploitation of human misery for profit. Southern plantations, concentration camps, prostitution rings, all forms of slavery for gain.

And while we still like to believe that slavery doesn't exist anymore, it's a delusion. The very food we eat, and the very clothes we wear, are made by slaves. Not slaves in shackles and chains, but slaves in factories in third world countries, and slaves from Mexico.

Some will argue that these people are not slaves in the traditional sense, they make a wage, they are free to go after work, but they are slaves nonetheless. Just the other day, I heard the monkey in the suit say that he will ease up on certain restrictions regarding migrant Mexican workers, who cross our borders to do jobs "others can't fill". In other words, backbreaking jobs that no self respecting modern day American would touch. And when the picking season is over, back they go, to Mexico, with none of the benefits we enjoy and expect.

Slaves in China and India and countless other countries make our sneakers, t.v.'s, p.c.'s, cell phones, for wages that we'd refuse.
Long hours, and poor conditions that we have eliminated by law here,
are perfectly acceptable to us as long as the final product is reasonably priced.

Of course, the president also said last week that outsourcing is really a good thing for everyone. Americans who could use a job at a decent wage, lose out, cause giant corporations would rather have it done by slaves than folks in Flint, Michigan. More profit you know.

We even have our own form of slavery here. The minimum wage. If you've ever been down on your luck and tried to live on the minimum wage, you know it's almost slavery. You work yourself to death, with nothing left after the bills and utilities and living expenses. Simple existence, a robot, an automaton, who must pay taxes.

Whether we like to admit it or not, slavery still exists, and we seem to accept it for the most part, because the chains and shackles are gone, and we are free to leave after work. A slave is a person who works hard, works honest, feeds his kids, pays his rent, but has no hopes of an American dream. No future full of security, no savings, only two paychecks from the streets, desperate and frightened. I know a lot of people like that. And I'm seeing more and more of them every day.

[Solon]

1. Its even worse than that Mopaul.

...The idea was to slip under the radar of U.S. quotas and duties, which would cost the manufacturers millions more if the garments were made outside U.S. territory. Garments from Saipan are made from foreign cloth, assembled by foreign workers on U.S. soil and labeled "Made in the USA."
And they are made cheaply. Wages in the factories average about $3 per hour -- more than $2 less than the U.S. minimum wage of $5.15. No overtime is paid for a 70-hour work week. But that's hardly the worst of it. Far away from the swank beachside hotels, luxurious golf courses and the thousands of Japanese tourists snorkling around sunken U.S. Navy landing craft in the clear waters, some 31,000 textile workers live penned up like cattle by armed soldiers and barbed wire, and squeezed head to toe into filthy sleeping barracks, all of which was documented on film by U.S. investigators last year.

The unhappy workers cannot just walk away, either: Like Appalachian coal miners a generation ago, they owe their souls to the company store, starting with factory recruiters, who charge Chinese peasants as much as $4,000 to get them out of China and into a "good job" in "America." Their low salaries make it nearly impossible to buy back their freedom. And so they stay. The small print in their contracts forbids sex, drinking -- and dissent.

Enter Tom DeLay and his Texas Republican sidekick, Dick Armey. When the Clinton administration sought to yank Saipan's factories into the 20th century in 1994, requiring the workers be paid a minimum wage, overtime and their living conditions improved, the island government hired a platoon of well-connected Washington lobbyists, headed by former DeLay aide Jack Abramoff, to block the plan. Abramoff, in turn, personally or through his family, contributed $18,000 to DeLay's campaign coffers. So far, the island government has paid the firm of Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds $4 million for their efforts, records show. They also treated DeLay and Armey to trips to the island, where they played golf, snorkled and made whirlwind visits to factories especially spiffed up for the occasion, according to several accounts.

"Even though I have only been here for 24 hours, I have witnessed the economic success of the Marianas," DeLay told a banquet crowd. As for the critics of the plantation system, DeLay told the dinner crowd darkly, "You are up against the forces of big labor and the radical left."

From Salon

They ARE shackled to the sewing machines, and on US soil no less! This has to STOP!!!!

[leftyandproud]

2. problem is..

there isn't a damn thing you can do about it..

If the companies are punished, they leave...and thousands lose any hope they might have had.

[Solon]

3. We need to change our trade policies, that's the first step.

Second is this, I am sick and tired of companies given a carrot for abusing the system, so how about the stick instead. If an American Company decides to outsource, fine, the U.S. should seize all assets held by said company, revoke its charter, and arrest its CEO's for defrauding the U.S. and their workers.

[rasputin1952]

4. I've said that for years...

but the powers of darkness will never see the light.

Slavery in any form is repugnant, and must be tackled head on. DeLay and Armey are worthless pieces of dog crap, and it amazes me they were ever elected in the first place, (although Armey finally has gone on to obscurity).

:grr: I despise these people, they will get their just reward.