baron
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- Joined
- Dec 8, 2006
- Messages
- 8,627
I don't think it's inappropriate to make a distinction between the undoubtedly evil way in which workers in some places are exploited, and even in many ways enslaved, and the institution of slavery as it was practiced here.
It's true that people in many other countries are, in some degree, exploited in a way that amounts to slavery in many ways, and that may in other ways be worse. But that does not make it the same thing.
Child labor, abuse, unsafe working conditions, and impoverishment may make the lot of many workers in the world materially worse than that of many slaves of former times, whose physical well being represented an investment. But at the same time, those abused workers are probably not subjected to laws that make their children automatically and irrevocably slaves for the rest of their lives, nor to legalized separation of families, legalized lashing and even death, or rape.
You can argue that things are just as bad, that the term "slavery" can loosely be applied here, and that there is little moral difference, just as there is little moral difference in the end between killing a person by hanging or by poisoning, but the things are not actually the same, and you don't have to be snarky or put words in other people's mouths to say that much.
These modern-day slaves / non-slaves / corporate trainees are not simply enslaved by their masters, they are enslaved by consumers all over the Western world. I wonder how many of the teachers and kids and their families know, or care, that the products they buy actually fund slavery in other countries? What irony that kids are likely sitting there wearing clothes produced by slaves whilst learning that the only slavery worthy of the name ended 200 years ago.
This, of course, is only one small portion of the gamut of modern day slavery. Your comparison of atrocities visited on slaves today as opposed to African slaves 200 - 400 years ago in the US seems to rest on their legality, which is a moot point for those involved. Even in the UK thousands of slaves are abused, beat, raped and even murdered every year, and the figures for the US are as you'd expect much greater. Then, when you consider the rest of the world you see that the US African slavery of 1600 - 1800 was nothing in comparison to what's going on this very day. Yes, the idea it was legal is shocking, but that's little more than a technicality when you realise that slavery is as good as legal for many millions across the world.
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