Headline of the day

Please take a look. This is so, so true:

America Didn’t “End” Slavery After the Civil War -- We Simply Exported It

Here's a brief excerpt:

The recent fires that killed 112 workers in Bangladeshi sweat shops making garments for Wal-Mart and other American retailers show how we, today, are frankly more hypocritical and dishonest about slavery than was Jefferson himself. 

As are those Libertarians who argue that the Bangladeshis were “willing workers,” when poverty is so severe in that country that working, chained into a firetrap factory, is essential to survival itself. To call the working conditions of much of the developing world anything less than slavery is to ignore the power relationships that keep workers behind fences, locked 24/7 in often-violent dormitories, and the companies that string nets outside windows to reduce worker suicides. 

I've actually heard people who think of themselves as having values and a conscience say that they can't justify NOT buying cheap imported stuff -- even when they know full well that workers are exploited and mistreated.
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