I sat in a conference a week or so ago and was astounded at a statistics I heard. Today, in 2010, there are over 27,000,000 human slaves in the world; a number so staggering than at any other time in human history.
Why? How has the human race progressed to this staggering deterioration? Where was I while this was going on?
What’s leading to this and where do I fit in?
Look no further than my wallet. We’re all demanding cheaper, better, faster…driving value, getting more for my money (today it is almost a sport – thanks to Clark Howard). That value has to come from somewhere (forgot for a minute that the plummet in the dollar’s value hasn’t helped either – it’s only made the situation severely worse). You cannot deny it, but we seem to blatantly forget it and never look back, because we’d never consider maybe, just maybe paring back our wants.
We want a full breakfast for $4.99
We want a t-shirt for $7.99
We want a light bulb be $0.59
We want a pizza for $5.00
We want a buy one get one free…
We want to save $100 with coupons
We want buy 3 tires and get the 4th one free
I don’t deny it – I want all these things too. But at what cost? There are 27,000,000 human slaves making that happen along that way to make sure the cost I pay is the best value. We are so removed from it that we don’t see. We don’t hear about it. We don’t realize it, but we’re responsible for it, because we’re the consumer of their efforts.
It’s human slavery harvesting cheap sugar.
It’s human slavery harvesting cheap cotton.
It’s human slavery working in mines.
It’s human slavery sewing garments together.
It’s human slavery picking fruit.
It’s human slavery milking a rubber tree.
The list goes on and on for cheaper, better, faster…
It’s time for us to own up for our irresponsibility. We cannot have our CHEAP cake and eat it too without understanding what it is doing in the world around us.
What do you demand to be cheap? Something you just have to save money on, or it will gnaw at you.
Is it worth it?
