Blaming “the market” is similar to not taking responsibility for climate change by demanding government action and changing your own habits.
Until we look in the mirror, there can be no change or progress.
If modern slavery has slaves picking fruit in the UK or working in brothels in Germany or washing cars in France, that's absolutely something those governments could crack down on, I agree.
On the other hand, if some lithium is mined by slaves and, after going through a complex supply chain spread across a bunch of countries, some of it ends up in devices that make their way to the Spain, or lowers world lithium prices benefiting Spanish consumers indirectly - the fact the slavery happened outside of Spain's jurisdiction makes it far more difficult for Spain to to throw the slavers in jail.
On the other end if a country is engaging in slavery or various derivatives of it, it’s still the fault of that government for allowing slavery to take place. If it’s a failed state then we have an obligation to not trade with that state, or perhaps even engage in nation building activities in an extreme case.
There are always things we can do. We simply choose not to as a people and by extension as a government. Unfortunately human nature and cognitive dissonance play a leading role in this and they are very, very good actors on the stage.
Spain has heard that some slavery is used by Subcontractor A at Mine B in Zimbabwe, which sells to Distributor C which also works with Mines D, E and F and sells bulk lithium on the international lithium markets where distributors G and H also sell, and where Battery Factory I buys some of their lithium but they also buy from J and K, and they manufacture cells under contract for battery brand L which sells them to home solar battery assembler M who also buy cells from brands N and O and actually only sell things ex-works in China, and Reseller P imports them into the EU.
Subcontractor A says the reports of slavery were wrong, that was actually perfectly legal prison labour. Mine B says actually they no longer work with Subcontractor A, and a local government inspector has certified them as slavery-free. Between C and O all the bulk materials get commingled, records occasionally get a bit mixed up, and precise sourcing details are commercially confidential. The battery reaches the shores of the EU with no known links to slavery.
-- Upton Sinclair
Producers have responsibility as well. Government should enforce such laws and consumers, in an idealistic sense, should be able to choose products and services that don't require slavery. Meanwhile, pretending that as a producer or supplier, I have no power or choice in the selection of labor is a farce at best. Every participant in a given market has some degree of responsibility.
The market itself is a system of policies, regulations, actions, and so on contributed to not solely by government or its constituents but also by private entities that have financial influence in policy making, often more than the people we're looking at in the mirror. Yes, as a consumer I have some responsibility and yes, governments have some responsibility as well, but so do other players like businesses and the very structure of the policies, regulations, and even incentives in a given market structure. Ignoring these is just passing blame along to others. It's critically important to realize that not everyone has the same weight of influence in a given market. I can look in the mirror all day but the influence in my choice of a my potential future EV purchase has miniscule sway relative to the opinions of someone like, say Elon Musk with a mountain of resources and influence.
I’m not saying businesses are absolved of responsibility, but if they are acting poorly it’s our responsibility to change that behavior. But how can we do that when we don’t actually want them to change?
Until the US government makes Nike stop using child labor to make sneakers, I’m not going to get mad at Nike either. Everyone is getting what they want except those who we treat poorly (oversimplification). Nike makes money, you get your new shoes every year for cheap, and the US government doesn’t have to do anything or risk have people voted out of office.
The more quickly we all come to understand this and stop trying to shift blame the more quickly we can actually solve problems. Until then we will keep buying our Nike shoes and complain about child labor and not actually do anything. If you don’t like these things like child labor, you can minimize what products you buy and where you buy them from. If you don’t like factory farming then yea suck it up like I do and pay more for eggs. Put your money where your morals are.
> Even then, they're held on a leash and abused through visa programs like in the US where they're paid a fraction of the rates their US native counterparts earn
That is not abuse. They can leave anytime. And if you talk to them, they are grateful for the opportunity to work here for "a fraction of the rates their US native counterparts earn" and would resent people like you who would take that away from them.
What is outrageous about the story posted is that they can't leave anytime they want. Their passport is taken from them. That's wrong.
Anecdote time, slightly related ! Be me, in wealthy western Europe. Walking a Sunday trail, hundreds of people. Taking a break on the side of the trail, looking at a community garden and reading the plaque about which vegetables is being grown, by who: local public "help" centres (read: a public social support program, state-funded, it's a pillar of our society, to help people find jobs and get back on track). The plaque reads that when vegetables are ripe people are free to pick it up (just don't take everything). Was having a nice chat with a random lady up to that point, most likely a bit leftist, nice, then she drops that line "Well, it's free, it's fine, after all it's all being paid for with our money".
On the way back I kept thinking about that and came to the conclusion that slavery could easily come back in less than half a generation. And I am not talking about how work is structured or how our society regulates work and employment and how it's an abstraction. We are always half a generation away from losing our social advancements (English correct wording escapes me at the moment).
Why is "it" (whatever "it" is) somehow related to slavery?
Some of the very obvious differences between pure historic slavery and what we have now is that human rights are significantly better across the board and individuals have some degree of autonomy to decide what aspects of their self and time to sell and whom to vs previous time periods where those things were just taken from individuals.
So long as we're able to give labor that degree of autonomy (e.g. autonomy enabled by the ability to provide necessities for themselves and their family like basic food, housing, and so on) then I think we have a reasonable compromise. Vast wealth disparity (leading to monopolistic behavior on the employment side), lack of competing opportunities to sell your time/skills, and markets trending and stabilizing to states that are not labor-friendly undermine this.
This continuously peels away the abstractions we have to create autonomy for individuals and moves the needle back towards owning people like slaves, holding them on a leash indirectly through monetary mediums of exchange (i.e. currency) and so on. If I need money and food and shelter and the only real viable route to attain this reasonably is to sell myself or allow myself to be sold on abusive markets that may want more than say just my maid services (perhaps 'maids with benefits' situations, i.e. disguised prostitution) then that's what's ultimately going to happen.
We may claim the people have autonomy but we've just created complex systems around their autonomy that give the appearance of choice. People need viable and reasonable choices, not just a set of options where only one is reasonable for a stable and happy life unless we want to slowly erode back to systems like indentured servitude and beyond.
The article explicitly calls out Filipino maids as the highest selling and having been to the Philippines and now being part of Filipino family, I understand why. The country is very poor overall and the culture exports labor to import wealth due to the lack of local opportunity. Sure they can study anything and go anywhere in the world but it turns out, many go to certain middle eastern countries and pursue maid careers because it's their only real viable option. Some of the more lucky Filipinos study in school and are able to get degrees in healthcare or hotel services and work abroad in countries with better protections. Even then, they're held on a leash and abused through visa programs like in the US where they're paid a fraction of the rates their US native counterparts earn and lack mobility to transition positions readily to negotiate competitive wages, so they lose rights to employers and work in undesirable locations, under market rates, and often the under the worst sort of contract situations.
It's not like this story of maids in Saudi Arabia where conditions are even worse but it shows how we need to maintain autonomy for everyone. Aside from the being most humane thing to do, out of sheer self-interest, if you sell your labor for time in any fashion, these infringements on rights slowly peel away your rights as well. You may not see it in your lifetime but we should push for better labor rights across the globe to prevent stepping back to past atrocities we've seen in slavery systems.