How Many Slaves Work For You?

A friend of mine recently shared a site that purports to calculate how many of the 27 million people who are effectively enslaved in developing countries contribute to our first-world lifestyles (considering sources of food, components of jewelry, electronics, etc.) Enjoy kicking a soccer ball around? Chances are it was made by a young Chinese boy or girl forced to work 21 hours a day for a month straight.

How many slaves work for you? (My estimate was 36, as I'm not too proud of but nor am I that surprised.)

slaveryfootprint.org...
Check out the site; it's informative and sobering. Contribute what you can, even if it just means a Facebook share or word-of-mouth mention. Also, for the mods, this might be better suited for the Social Issues forum, but it's an economic issue too. Please relocate for maximum impact.

reply to post by johnsequitur1221


the survey crashed - but i would preffer to have 3~4 slaves working direct for me , not at the far end of some goods pipeline

One definition of slave is some one who is dependent on something in order to live. Under that definition we are all slaves. Slaves to money, most cannot survive with out it. You could argue that food bonds you into slavery because you are depended on it to live.

Only 37, surprising for my lifestyle. I thought i would hit the triple digits with all the stuff i own and buy

Funny page, as it saids it's an estimate and it's propably wrong. I don't know for example how what i eat has anything to do with slaves. If if buy my meat from a farmer where i live, how do i support slavery with it? Most of the food i buy comes from this country i live in and there's no slavery.
Now the other things, yeah i know there's slavery involved with jewelry, electronic devices and other things, but that's the way it goes.
What now? I surely don't throw my clothes, jewelry and electronic devices out of the window nor do i stop buying them. Why should i? I need them and one has to wonder, what would happen to those 'slaves' if they didn't even had that work. I guess to would live on the street and starve to death. The way it's now at least they do something and get money to live.

If you buy a shirt and its been made anywhere in Asia, it has been touched by no less than 5 child slaves.

It's true. Sweet shops in every part of asia, it's very sad

Originally posted by ShadowAngel85
Only 37, surprising for my lifestyle. I thought i would hit the triple digits with all the stuff i own and buy

Funny page, as it saids it's an estimate and it's propably wrong. I don't know for example how what i eat has anything to do with slaves. If if buy my meat from a farmer where i live, how do i support slavery with it? Most of the food i buy comes from this country i live in and there's no slavery.
Now the other things, yeah i know there's slavery involved with jewelry, electronic devices and other things, but that's the way it goes.
What now? I surely don't throw my clothes, jewelry and electronic devices out of the window nor do i stop buying them. Why should i? I need them and one has to wonder, what would happen to those 'slaves' if they didn't even had that work. I guess to would live on the street and starve to death. The way it's now at least they do something and get money to live.

I find this post disgusting I have to say, are you sure you need your jewerlery at the expense of those third world countries? I fail to see how the page is funny even if the figures are incorrect. If we did not demand they would not turn people into slaves to feed the west. Supply and Demand.

* Not to say I am perfect, most of what we buy today comes from China but it should not funny to anyone.*

reply to post by johnsequitur1221


Awesome link and thanks for sharing it. People who are going to whine about it are people who refuse to think their lifestyle is contributing to a global evil. I am not blameless but I'll be the first to admit it. Aside from changing global economics and a victim/predator capitalist world financial system, we can't do much to change it.

One thing I've found that makes me sleep at night a little bit better is buying most of my products used and, of course, not buying any bling-bling that serves ZERO purpose other than filling somebody's ego. Hell, even my wife and I tattooed our wedding rings just to avoid buying diamonds or gold.

Nobody should (on an individual level) feel guilty for buying functional items but you better darned well be signing petitions and being aware of boycotting the especially heinous corporations. In fact, every purchase of a new product is a vote. Boycotting is the most effective act of war against a corporation. That will be the voice of change in the future.

Maybe I'm paranoid but as soon as it said it wanted to track my location I closed the browser.

Originally posted by Kram09
Maybe I'm paranoid but as soon as it said it wanted to track my location I closed the browser.

One of the options was "no thanks" and you could just put in your zip code. Your place of residence changes the results.

Great site, OP. It's easy for people to remain unaware of how dependent they are on the misery of others.

The true situation is murkier and probably worse than even that site estimates.