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When we think of slavery, many of us think of historical or so-called "traditional forms" of slavery – and of the 12m people ripped from their West African homes and shipped across the Atlantic for a lifetime in the plantations of the Americas.
But slavery is not just something that happened in the past –- the modern day estimate for the number of men, women and children forced into labour worldwide exceeds 40m. Today's global slave trade is so lucrative that it nets traffickers more than US$150 billion each year.
The article asserts that much of today's slavery is being driven by the demand for electronic goods.
[Edit: fixed ILO links]
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Slavery Was Never Abolished – It Affects Millions, and You May Be Funding It
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an
open doorway with an open mind.
-- E. B. White
(Score: 5, Informative) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Friday October 19 2018, @04:45PM (1 child)
It's even worse in some state systems. Four states don't pay for prison labor at all.
Louisiana's state pen at Angola is a converted plantation and inmates are put to work there picking cotton.
Being enslaved to the government might make more sense than being enslaved to a private corporation, though. Corporations like Starbucks and Victoria's Secret have made deals with prisons to use prisoner labor. That's one problem with the government keeping slaves -- the temptation to engage in "convict leasing" is ever present. Look up the history of "Black Codes" and "convict leasing". There is nothing accidental about this.
Oh, and I'll amplify the point about a wide net. You don't even have to use drugs to wind up in prison. Here's all it takes to be guilty of "conspiracy to distribute": https://seattlecriminallawyerhelp.com/blog/ignorance-of-the-law-obstuction-of-justice/. [seattlecriminallawyerhelp.com] I'm three handshakes from someone who hitchhiked, got picked up by a van of hippies, and they had a brick of LSD. Everyone in a vehicle is legally guilty of possession, so he got a double digit Federal sentence for "with intent to distribute" -- for hitchhiking.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Friday October 19 2018, @05:13PM
One led to the other. It makes no more sense to be enslaved by the government than anyone else.