An Alternative To Boycotts

Today, we as consumer are often unaware of where the things we buy come from, or how and by whom they are made. However consumers are not the only ones living in ignorance, many major conglomerates and companies are unaware of the origins of their products.  This means that some companies are unknowingly supporting, and profiting from slavery. To think that box of chocolates sitting on our kitchen table is a product of slave labor is sickening. It brings up the question of what we, as consumers can do. To many people the obvious answer is a boycott. A boycott as described by Andrew John and Jill Klein in their article The Boycott Puzzle: Consumer Motivations for Purchase Sacrifice as "Boycotts are usually conceptualized as instrumental-that is, as a tactic to influence the behavior of a firm (or other institution) by withholding purchase of their products. "

According to Kevin Bales, author of Ending Slavery : How We Free Today's Slaves. We may actually be hurting instead of helping our cause. Out of all the small farms that supply cocoa for the chocolate company, only a very small percentage are using slave labor. When consumers stop purchasing the head company's products all the little companies and farmers who do business with the larger one are hurt.  Kevin Bales says that"by mounting a boycott that destroys what little market they [farmers without slaves] do have, the result can be destitution and potentially enslavement." Even though boycotts can be successful, they can result in more people being hurt, than being helped. Kevin Bales says that in order to truly remove the presence of slaves from the products we buy we need to free the people currently enslaved and prosecute the people enslaving them.

Instead of focusing our energies on combating slavery through boycotts, we should focus on encouraging companies and other consumers to as Kevin Bales says "take responsibility for the product chain of the things we make, sell and buy". Companies can do this by working with human rights groups and finding ways to monitor the labor conditions of the workers who make all aspects of the product. This method of fighting slavery is a better than boycotting because it does not harm innocent farmers and companies, leaving them destitute and more vulnerable to enslavement themselves.

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Slavery results from economic disparities

The trafficker, the slave owning entrepreneur, and the unfortunate bonded individual all have one thing in common, and that is the need for economic success. Exploiting individuals to achieve the minimum cost of labor satisfies the demand for maximized profits. As long as there are individuals who are willing to exploit humans in efforts of attaining the maximum profit, slavery is said to continue. 

Those who fall into slavery often come from vulnerable situations. Extreme poverty contributes significantly to global slave trade. Desperate families will sell their children with the allusion that the child will experience a better life, or simply the family cannot afford another mouth to feed. Traffickers prey on desperate situations including natural disasters. After the devastating earthquake in Haiti last January, despite promises from Haitian leaders to protect orphaned children, the number of smuggled individuals (especially children) skyrocketed. This same behavior was witnessed in south Asia after the tsunami in 2003. After both disasters children were devalued to the point that smugglers offered to trade children for sex, cooking, and laundry. 

Traffickers have very little to nothing invested in their slaves, resulting in up to 500% profit. This economic venture proves too tempting to those whom have traded their morals for potential economic growth. A simple way to combat this issue and to minimize the exploiters' profits is, as a consumer to demand fair traded items. The combination of excessive materialism and the desire to spend the least amount of currency possible fuels the human trafficking industry. When we as consumers decide to elevate the fad of buying fair trade and organic items into a movement and demand true fairly traded items, the profits reaped by slave owners will diminish significantly.

 

Raising awareness along with passing and enforcing legislation can also minimize the number of those who reside in bondage. Organizations such as the Polaris Project and Free the Slaves are successful in both raising awareness and inspiring legislation. While slavery is illegal in every country, indifferent public officials seldom seek to assist those who are enslaved. We as responsible citizens of society have the moral obligation to demand people of power to take actions against exploiters and assist those who have been taken advantage of.

Slavery: A Tragic Recipe for World Domination

The following story is a fictional representation of what slaves have provided for the United States, the world’s most powerful nation:

There are twenty students in Mr. Sam’s math class. Out of the twenty students, only two of them are smart enough to pass the class, which is a requirement for graduation. The rest of the class is full of slackers who are willing to do anything other than the work itself to avoid failing. The lazy students understand that graduation is in jeopardy, so they devise a scheme that will ensure their success. Unfortunately for the two ambitious students, the plan revolves around them doing everyone else’s work. They are oblivious to the scheme until one day after class, when the slackers take them by surprise and beat them senseless in an abandoned parking lot. The slackers impose their will on their defenseless classmates beyond the point of surrender. Scared for their lives, the ambitious students agree to do homework and projects for the rest of the class.

As time progresses, the good students continue to do work for the everyone else. Their peers’ work is now their main priority due to the brutality they may otherwise encounter, and they have no time to do their own assignments. While their grades are plummeting, the slackers’ grades are skyrocketing. In the end, the abusers graduate the class and move on to bigger and better things, and the students responsible for the others‘ success, become failures themselves.

This is a portrayal of how historical slavery built the United States' economy. However, due to the brutal mistreatment of slaves, people don't often refer to free labor as the most profitable practice in history. It's important that americans, african americans especially, understand the impact that their ancestors had (and still have) on the world's greatest superpower. It is blatantly unfair for slave owners to reap the benefits of slave labor without properly crediting the workers themselves. Awareness needs to be spread regarding the impact of slaves on the united states economy, so perhaps they can finally be 'paid back'.