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Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy

Jan 7, '06 3:15 PM
for everyone

Category:	Books
Genre:	Nonfiction
Author:	Kevin Bales

slavery: The total control of one person by another
for the purpose of economic exploitation.
(definition by Kevin Bales)

slavery: Forced labor without pay under threat of violence.
(definition by American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG))

Slavery still exists, in America and around the world.

There are many people in the world who are poor, who are near starvation, who cannot find work or who have been devastated by a natural disaster. There are people who are paid pennies for hours upon hours of hard labor in poor conditions. There are children who are sent to work at the same age we would begin sending our children to school. ....This book is not about any of these people.

Kevin Bales has documented slavery in Thailand, Mauritania, Brazil, Pakistan, and India (and probably other countries as well, but these are the 5 places he addresses in detail in this book). He has spoken directly not only with slaves, but when possible, with their slaveholders. Although slavery is illegal in every country on this planet, slavery continues. People are taken against their will, money is exchanged as these people are handed over to others, and then these people are made to work for no pay under the threat of violence.

There are some notable differences between the slavery we may be familiar with from history books and the slavery that takes place across the globe today: Slavery is now illegal. Slaves are cheaper to obtain than they were in the 1600 - 1800's. Incredibly high profits can be made by the use of slave labor. There is a surplus of potential slaves. Slaves are often kept for only short periods. Slaves are disposable. And ethnic differences are of little importance.

Slavery is now illegal. In the past, slaveowners received receipts, or ownership papers, for the slaves they purchased. There were also laws on how a slaveowner was to treat the people he had purchased. Today, there is no legal ownership of people and slaveholders do not receive (or even want) receipts for their purchases. (Why would they want documentation that could be used to prove they had slaves? Then again, the police in the countries where slavery thrives are often so corrupt that it's doubtful the slaveholder would ever be called to court.) There are also no laws that a slaveholder must adhere to in their treatment of the people under their control. Anything goes, including killing a slave that is no longer of any use, who is too badly damaged to work, or who is causing problems. As Kevin Bales says, "Slaveholders have all of the benefits of ownership without the legalities."

Slaves are cheaper to obtain than they were in the 1600 - 1800's. In pre-civil war America, buying a slave was an investment. By the mid-1800's a slave might sell for anywhere between $1,000 to $1,800 (equivalent to about $50,000 - $100,000 in todays funds). Though the slaves were still treated very poorly, there was an incentive to keep them alive for as long as possible. Slaves today sell for as little as $30. When a slave is no longer worth keeping they are simply disposed of one way or another.

Incredibly high profits can be made by the use of slave labor. Slavery is incredibly profitable. In pre-civil war America a slave generated only about 5 percent profit. In India, a slave can generate a profit of over 50 percent. In Thailand, a sex slave can bring in as much as an 800 percent profit for the slaveholders. In fact, in some cases it is very hard to pin down exactly who the slaveholder might be as there's an entire chain of employees and investors involved in the process. The girl may be paid for and controlled by a man at the brothel where she must work, but that man is most likely receiving capital for the purchase of slaves as well as the running of the brothel from Thai, or Japanese, investors (who may or may not know what their investments are supporting).

There is a surplus of potential slaves. Following World War II, the world's population has exploded, especially across Southeast Asia, India, and Africa. Resources have become strained due to the increased demands of the population and many are left poor and desperate. Subsequently, lives become cheap and the potential slave population increases.

Slaves are often kept for only short periods. Slaves are disposable. In today's world, slaves are easy to replace. When one becomes ill, injured, or simply too old or used up to work at the pace demanded, the slaveholder may simply let them go. Of course, the slaveholder doesn't go through the hassle of figuring out where the slave came from in the first place and returning them. The slave is simply dropped off somewhere, without any money, most likely sick and completely demoralized, in a strange place. The now ex-slave may not even speak the language of the people in the place where they have been dropped off. They don't know who can be trusted, who to turn to, or where to start to find work, food or shelter.

Ethnic differences are of little importance. The slavery that many of us are familiar with is very closely tied to race. Though this is still true in Mauritania, throughout the rest of the world race plays no part in slavery. The poor are the targets, irregardless of the color of their skin.

Though slavery is a moral issue, Kevin Bales understands that trying to change people's morals when doing so might cost them 800% return on their investments is a losing battle. So instead he delves into the economics of today's slavery in order to provide not just a sense of why it is taking place, but also how it can best be fought against. He explains how this is a global issue, not just one of Southeast Asia, India or any one country. As Bales points out, "No paid workers, no matter how efficient, can compete economically with unpaid workers -- slaves."

I have barely begun to skim the surface of the issues that Kevin Bales delves into. I can not come anywhere near to giving the detail, the background, the eye witness accounts and the poignant summaries about present day slavery that Bales has poured into this book. If you are interested in the topic of slavery, then I highly recommend that you read this book. If you aren't interested, then I'd recommend that you reconsider.

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Quotes from the book.
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"Slavery is an obscenity. It is not just stealing someone's labor; it is the theft of an entire life."

"There are more slaves alive today than all the people stolen from Africa in the time of the transatlantic slave trade. Put another way, today's slave population is greater than the population of Canada, and six times greater than the population of Israel."

"The important point is that slaves constitute a vast workforce supporting the global economy we all depend upon."

"In India, for example, there are between 65 and 100 million children ages fourteen and younger who work more than eight hours a day. They fill the sweatshops and do many other kinds of work. Worse, about 15 million of these children are not child laborers but child slaves. And enslaved children are even more hidden; trapped in debt bondage, they tend not to work in sweatshops producing for large-scale export but in smaller-scale, more isolated businesses. Unlike the owners of factories making soccer balls, their masters have little fear of exposure or public pressure."

"In slavery today we can see that the distance between "master" and slave is growing wider and wider. In the fully developed new slavery of Thailand or Brazil there are elaborate chains of contracts and control. These become so complicated that it is hard to say who exactly "owns " the slave. But just because we can't finger the slaveholder doesn't mean that slavery has ceased to exist, any more than a murder doesn't exist because the killer can't be found. The new slavery is a crime with millions of victims but very few identifiable criminals--and that makes its eradication very difficult. For the most part, these criminals are "respectable" businesspeople."

"But we have to remember that violence is the tool, not the aim, of slavery. Slaveholders will violently defend their lucrative businesses, but they will walk away from the slaves and the business if it stops making money. Putting the pressure on its profits is a key strategy for ending slavery."

Tags: slavery, trafficking

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13 CommentsChronological Reverse Threaded

jadae wrote on Jan 7, '06

Now this is a book I'd read. Depressing but good.

deadlyblur wrote on Jan 9, '06

barefootmeg said

The slave is simply dropped off somewhere, without any money, most likely sick and completely demoralized, in a strange place.

I found this fact interesting. I would have thought that most, if not all slaves that couldn't be used anymore would be killed. I would have thought that letting a slave go could be a potential threat to the slavery operation whomever was running...then again, perhaps a murder would be harder to cover-up versus a slavery operation...I don't know.

barefootmeg wrote on Jan 9, '06

deadlyblur said

in most (all?) of the countries where Bales documented slavery, the police were in collaboration. in fact, if a slave ran away, the police were not likely to take the slaves story and try the slaveholders. rather, they'd pick up the slave and return them to where they ran from. in thailand they'd use the girls for awhile before returning them.

so killing a slave didn't mean a problem with police so much as a problem with a body.

if you let a slave go, then it's the slaves problem to get their body somewhere else. they'll likely die elsewhere or be taken in by another slave holder or simply find a ghetto to get by in. (slaves in brazil are often picked up in one ghetto, used in the coal making trade miles and miles from civilization, then driven back to some other ghetto years later and dropped off.)

userfriendly wrote on Apr 8, '06

hmm..

Meg, and what do you think about that:
http://www.freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=21283
http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20060308212417247

slavery's inside each of us.
they are doing the same now to education system here in Russia.

barefootmeg wrote on Apr 8, '06

well, yes, there are many ways that slavery is metaphorically at work in schools, governments, churches etc. i suppose.

i haven't seen the curriculum that Iserbyt mentions in her article. (I don't think she mentioned the name of the curriculum nor the publisher so I don't know that I can look it up either.) and i haven't at all had that experience in the schools that my kids are in. in fact, i've seen the exact opposite. my kids' love of reading has blossomed thanks in large part to the great job their teachers are doing.

but at the same time, this book by Kevin Bales isn't about metaphorical slavery. it's about the very real buying and selling of people. although what Iserbyt mentions is very sad, it doesn't come close to the careless disregard for human life that Bales documents.

xoshelly wrote on Sep 19, '06

hi, im reading this book for school. I am not good at understanding books like these, i am wondering meg if that information you have above is about the book that you thought. Please help me thanks a lot! =)

barefootmeg wrote on Sep 20, '06

i'm impressed that this book has been assigned for school. who's your teacher? i'd love to know why he/she has assigned it and how he/she first heard about it (And if there's any response from the parents at having their kids read this).

what are you having a hard time understanding? are you just upset by the violence described?

xoshelly wrote on Sep 21, '06

hi, thanks for writing me, im actually my first year of college. its an elective class called "Global issues". The professor is really into this kind of things, helping people and all sorts. He goes to Central America and help out in rainforest. and other things too. it is pretty sad how these people are. Do you know where i can find information that backs up each place he talks about in the book? Thanks again =)

barefootmeg wrote on Sep 21, '06

this guy is THE main writer on slavery today. so most of what you find in journals and newspapers will refer right back to him.

scientific american did a piece on slavery in ... 2003 or 2002?

the new york times published an article (that i think was by this guy) in 2003 that apparently made a lot of waves. people didn't believe it.

i think national geographic has done something more recently. hmmm, 2005, maybe.

you should go to the anti-slavery group here on multiply and see what's linked to over there. several articles have either been posted there or linked to there.

xoshelly wrote on Sep 21, '06

Thanks a lot! =)

donald777 wrote on Oct 7, '06

Thank You for what you shared, and sad to say this still goes on and you are right it has nothing to do with the color of your skin. The poor, The homeless, The weak are taken advantage of and made to do things that are degrading because they have no choice. I enjoyed reading this. Thank You again and I hope others will read the book and also take a stand for the unjusitce done against the poor and hungry and hurting people who have no where else to turn and our forced in to slavery. Matter of fact slavery has never stop at all and that is so sad for anyone of us who has suffered because of this.

raggydoll wrote on Nov 10, '07

dId Americans get to hear much about the slave labour that was being used to build the US Embassy in Iraq .I have to admit that one even shocked me I know it wasn`t an American company who had the contract or who was doing the actual kidnapping but shouldn`t the US actually check up on what their contractors are doing .According to the news here they wasn`t only forced to go to Iraq at gun point and made to work for nothing they were also half starved and almost worked to death .if i remember correctly one of them was(worked to death)