AIBU to ask how many slaves are working for you?

(61 Posts)
MiniTheMinx Mon 19-Nov-12 17:38:16

Discovered today that I have 55 slaves working for me. I have clothes, electrical goods, food and other goods in my home that have been made using slavery.

There are over 27 million slaves in the world today, many of them children. They exist in all parts of the world.

To discover how many slaves you have working for you you can do a survey here at the top of the page there is a link that says "how many slaves work for you"

quoteunquote Mon 19-Nov-12 18:27:06

Interesting, but it didn't have anyway of calibrating, if you are an ethical buyer.

OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos Mon 19-Nov-12 19:05:44

The survey conked out on me halfway through, but it was ridiculously slow so frustrating to use, especially on the very basic questions.

Anyway, I don't have any slaves working for me. I am not responsible for what huge companies do.

GrendelsMum Mon 19-Nov-12 19:31:19

very interesting - thanks very much for sharing!

I couldn't get it to give me any actions, though?

I think it makes an excellent point - we're all ready to tut tut at the British people of 200 years ago for eating their slave grown sugar and cotton, but rarely think about our own options for ethical consumption.

takataka Mon 19-Nov-12 19:37:27

Something like 70% of chocolate has slaves involved with picking/some point in production

Bogeyface Mon 19-Nov-12 19:37:59

Ok, but what is your plan to change this?

Its all very inducing guilt in us all, but given that sourcing ethically produced goods for all parts of life is a) very difficult and in some cases impossible b) time consuming and c) often prohibitively expensive, what good will it do?

I would far rather click on a link that had a considered and sensible manifesto for change and support it in whatever way was appropriate.

StewieGriffinsMom Mon 19-Nov-12 19:42:51

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

StickEmUp Mon 19-Nov-12 19:47:58

52 for me

FobblyWoof Mon 19-Nov-12 19:51:02

One. DP grin

What should I be doing?

MiniTheMinx Mon 19-Nov-12 20:01:20

I don't plan to do anything, I was just a bit surprised at my score to be honest, we are not great consumers.

Yes takataka I have read that somewhere, is it the Ivory Coast? where they have a lot of children on something like the equivalent of 40p a day. I had chocolate this afternoon, almost wish I hadn't.

I found the survey quite easy to do but a bit quirky and I kept getting a bit lost !

MiniTheMinx Mon 19-Nov-12 20:02:26

NorksAreMessy have you done the survey? it doesn't ask for too much info and no personal info.

skaen Mon 19-Nov-12 20:10:59

36. It was frustrating though. I am pretty aware of ethical purchasing so we grow a lot of our own vegetables, we buy meat direct from the farms and try to buy ethical clothes, we have a car but very rarely use it (and got hit by the slavery involved in making bikes even though my bike is made in Holland).

I didn't think it refined the categories enough -its all very well asking for quantities of things but it would be useful to screen a bit more.

The question at the end pissed me off a little bit. If you're an aware enough consumer to be taking the test in the first place, you are likely to be pretty clear on how the sex industry works.

MakeItALarge Mon 19-Nov-12 20:19:21

Doesnt work on my phone. Bit daft to blame the average consumer though, there are more people in slavery now than at the height of the 'slave trade'. We can all shop as ethically as possible, but its not going to have much impact on what is a huge global problem.

RuleBritannia Mon 19-Nov-12 20:22:38

I'm not defending the slavemasters but, MiniTheMinx, what is 40p in Ivory Coast could well be the value of a week's salary here.

28, however like other posters have said it needs more filters. It would not let me take into account that most of my meat/veg/salad comes from my local butchers.

It was eye opening though.

Softlysoftly Mon 19-Nov-12 20:24:41

Erm if the kids get paid 40p per day they aren't technically slaves though confused.

Thought provoking but TBH like PP said ultimately forgettable unless there is a specific way to improve matters. My understanding is most of the countries are so corrupt it's hard to trust even "ethical" products.

MammaTJ Mon 19-Nov-12 20:41:05

43 apparently.

StewieGriffinsMom Mon 19-Nov-12 21:04:14

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

wannaBe Mon 19-Nov-12 21:04:16

The problem with all this emotive tal about slavery etc is that people base their thoughts and opinions on UK standards, when actually it doesn't work like that.

So we all stop buying from companies that use "slave" labour, and then what? 43P a day might not be anything to any of us, but to someone in a third world country it is potentially the difference between being able to eat and going hungry.

None of us would want our children having to work to earn a living, but reality is that in many countries there isn't any other choice. Take away that 43P a day income, and they have nothing. there isn't a benefits system to fall back on, no government credit or hand-outs, you earn what you can, or you starve, and then the sanctemonious amongst us who generally don't have a clue of what it's like in the third world other than what they've seen on tv stickk their oar in and demand that these companies stop employing children because it's just not right.

Maybe here in the UK where we have council housing and benefits and a massive culture of entitlement it's not right, but in the third world there isn't any other choice, and other culture doesn't emulate our own...

MiniTheMinx Mon 19-Nov-12 21:04:24

I agree softly I am rarely buy "free trade" I have always been a bit circumspect about it and assumed it was a bit of a rip off.

oh no, I didn't mean that the kids on the ivory coast working for 40p were slaves although it seems that slavery is happening there as well. I don't know what 40p is worth but these people are being exploited, chocolate and coffee is horrendously expensive here and it's obvious the growers and workers are not benefiting.

MiniTheMinx Mon 19-Nov-12 21:11:14

I rarely distracted by the fact that the battery is nearly dead on my keyboard, I can't think straight.

I agree with StewieGriffinsMom working and living below the poverty line, in conditions such as some people in the third world are living is slavery. They have no choice, no education, there is no escape, nothing to aspire to. Farmers have so little control over what they grow and who they sell to. Although i did read about farmers being given phones with aps that would update them on corn/wheat prices, weather reports and the such like so that they could plan and they could sell at better prices.

CrunchyFrog Mon 19-Nov-12 21:14:22

54 but it doesn't take into account that most of our clothes are second hand, same for bikes, gadgets etc. Don't know if that should make a difference.

ginnybag Mon 19-Nov-12 21:17:38

Well, I'd be more impressed if their guilt-inducing quiz had been formatted correctly, so that I could get past question two.

GrunglyBum Mon 19-Nov-12 21:24:34

I got to question 4 and have given up, it is too frustrating to use.

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