Probably most products that you purchase and use.

It's highly embedded in the global food, textile, and raw materials systems. Typically at the lowest levels.

For example, Cobalt is a mineral that is used in virtually all batteries. The supply is heavily concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which notoriously utilizes slave and child labor to extract the mineral. Sure companies are trying to avoid slave extracted cobalt. However it is extremely difficult to do that. Slave operation A can just simply sell their product to Legitimate operation B and sneak into the supply chain.

Some links on food / agricultural labor abuse: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/02/01/582214032/wa...

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/07/28/426888946/be...

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/03/29/521971468/in...

And you can find articles on the textile industry's labor abuse everywhere online.

It's not a new concept. Most consumers like you and me benefit from this via cheaper prices, and will not stop consumption patterns.

I strongly suspect not all products are the same.

Your second link has such a database. https://knowthechain.org

Thanks :)

I really get skeptical of attitudes like this. It's not enough to just make a conscious decision to not buy them yourself because it won't accomplish much. You need systemic change or significant pressure on the slave shops at the very least.

Getting "systemic change or significant pressure" starts by individuals spreading awareness and campaigning politically, and determining what goods are produced using slave labor is a big part of that.

Perfect is the enemy of good. Individuals cannot effect systemic change, but they can reduce their own responsibility. In so doing, they might convince others to do so, which can effect systemic change.

Changing individual behavior is concrete and demonstrable. It's also harder and requires more of a sacrifice, which is why people don't do it. On the other hand, effecting systemic change is ill-defined and hard to measure. It's a lot easier to attempt (and fail) a monolithic task with no skin in the game than it is to clean up your own side of the street.

I'm not trying to completely solve the problem. I'm trying to be less complicit in it.

I'm thinking of the story of the English factory workers that refused to use the products of slave labor. It didn't stop slavery but they at least weren't complicit.