People for Sale
Geov Parrish shines again, this time with an important, albeit disturbing, article about the 21st century’s hot growth industry: the buying and selling of human beings. Isn’t it neat being the world’s sole superpower, able to spread our values of truth, justice, and liberty from sea to shining sea?
October 30th, 2002 at 4:05 pm
Although I by no means condone these things, I’m going to do a little dance on the advocation/condemnation line of this one to prove a point or two.
We live in an economic system called capitalism. Well, we call it capitalism because that’s the opposite of communism, but we’re really in a form of socialism. Anyway, for the sake of argument, capitalism.
Now in this system, money (or wealth, more precisely) is the driving force. It’s what motivates us. Ever wonder why there’s no official religion in the U.S.? It would inhibit our pursuit of the almighty dollar.
Capitalism is ruled by the profit margin. And, of course, the profit margin is ruled by risk. Usually the higher the risk the higher possible reward. Stocks for example.
So, what’s riskier than stomping on someone’s basic human rights? Not much except blatant theft. Problem is with theft the victims complain, so we’re left with the comparitively quiet (how many of you knew of this before reading it here?) crime of slavery.
I don’t think John would appreciate me chewing up a bunch of room with a 13 page thesis on the subject, so I’ve basicly just given a synopsis. God bless America indeed…
November 4th, 2002 at 2:38 pm
Can I please have the story/book, because it’s a great book. And I really enjoyed it.