Is it time for an American Forced Labor Prevention Act?

Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act?

 

Is it time for an American Forced Labor Prevention Act? 

 

The law, called the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, presumes that all of these goods are made with forced labor, and stops them at the U.S. border, until importers can produce evidence that their supply chains do not touch on Xinjiang, or involve slavery or coercive practices.

Evan Smith, the chief executive at the supply chain technology company Altana AI, said his company calculated that roughly a million companies globally would be subject to enforcement action under the full letter of the law, out of about 10 million businesses worldwide that are buying, selling or manufacturing physical things.

-       Companies Brace for Impact of New Forced Labor Law, NY Times

Incarcerated workers in the US produce at least $11bn in goods and services annually but receive just pennies an hour in wages for their prison jobs, according to a new report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Nearly two-thirds of all prisoners in the US, which imprisons more of its population than any other country in the world, have jobs in state and federal prisons. That figure amounts to roughly 800,000 people, researchers estimated in the report, which is based on extensive public records requests, questionnaires and interviews with incarcerated workers.

-       US prison workers produce $11bn worth of goods and services a year for pittance, The Guardian.

 

 

By Gregg Wall (6-25-2022) 

 

Let’s hear it for America… seems that we are finally going to address China’s slave labor problem, concerning the long abused, and suffering, Uyghur Muslim community.  No doubt, a highly worthy cause.  But American crony-capitalism, globalization and neoliberalism are so addicted to slave labor -- as are the nation’s oligarchy and Wall St. -- that we are not talking about tens of millions of dollars of Chinese goods being blocked from import into the U.S., but rather, billions.  

 

The article, from the NY Times, reminded me of a story that I had recently read in the Guardian, where modern day slaves… in the world’s largest penal system, right here in America… produced $11 billion in goods and services, often at pennies or zero compensation, per hour.  But oddly enough, no mention from the Biden administration about shutting down this slave labor colony, right here in the United States. 

 

It can be easily argued that anyone, in the U.S., who doesn’t make a living wage is not only impoverished, but is also indentured to merely survive, which by itself meets the definition of slavery.  The U.S. spends roughly $7 billion a year, in government aid, just to keep its fast-food workers alive, which is nothing less than a backdoor profits subsidy to their fast-food, fast-profits employers (especially if said employer has gamed the tax code in a given year).  Such irony in the ‘land of the free’, and with Thirteenth Amendment (prohibiting slavery) to the Constitution being passed January 31, 1865, that so many Americans are enslaved, impoverished to a penurious existence.  Wasn’t Reaganomics and Supply-side economics supposed to raise all life rafts?

 

Of course, if Mr. Biden is going to go after U.S. multinational abuse and exploitation of Sino-labor, he’s going to have to dig a lot deeper than the Uyghur community.  China’s average yearly wages only add up to roughly 110,000 Yuan… or less than $16,500 USD.

 

And if Biden is going to crack down on Chinese slave labor, shouldn’t he crack down on U.S. slave labor here at home?  It’s estimated that 36% of American labor is participating in the Gig Economy, as independent contractors, often facing wage theft and abusive work conditions (and those numbers are only expected to grow).  Bloomberg reported in 2021 that half the full-time American work force made less than the median US income of approximately $50,000, which – in most American cities – isn’t enough to live on.  And given the recent surge in consumer price gouging (aka ‘inflation’) $50,000 isn’t going to get an American worker far with soaring rent, fuel prices, and ever escalating food costs.  

Then there's the 1.7 trillion-dollar student debt crisis, another form of indentured servitude and slavery.  No doubt, student debt should be eliminated in its entirety or assessed exclusively to employers, the beneficiaries of an educated workforce.

 

Seems there’s plenty of poverty and workplace abuse for Mr. Biden to tackle, not only in Asia, but America too.  While the donor class has raked in trillions of dollars, in large part, due to Congressional and Federal Reserve intervention in the debt and equity markets, throughout the pandemic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The entire premise of neoliberalism, aside from shareholder value and profit maximization, is based upon labor exploitation and crushing organized labor and unions.  Labor is often a business’ greatest expense.  Since Reagan, Thatcher and the Clintons… globalization, over the last forty years, has led to maximum exploitation of labor, stagnant US wages, and the destruction of the American dream.  Even recent wage increases, much heralded by the MSM, after adjustment for inflation, still remain negative for many Americans.  Contrary to the line we are often fed about a growing middle class in Asia, India and Mexico (i.e. the globalist narrative), the bulk of workers in developing nations and emerging markets remain desperate and impoverished (see China’s average wage).  It’s all a global race to the bottom, with billionaires and multinational boardrooms and C-suites collecting the spoils. 

 

And if we really want to go there and discuss unpaid labor, who toil in slavery… what about all the American women that SCOTUS just turned into baby production machines and incubators with zero pay?  Don’t they deserve to be justly compensated for carrying children, against their will? 

 

Many of these unwanted pregnancies will grow up in highly challenged economic & social environments, a fate often suffered in poorer American communities.   Childhood poverty, last I checked, increased by more than 40% earlier this year... thanks to SCOTUS, and its abortion ruling, those childhood poverty numbers will likely grow.  If Biden was serious about tackling SCOTUS’ abortion ruling, Dems could levy a mandatory tax against America’s multinationals and any foreign multinational operating – or selling goods - on U.S. soil.  The very same multinationals that, all too often, thrive off independent contractor and slave labor; the very same enterprises, run by well-heeled management & ownership, that donate billions to America’s far-right GOP (the same GOP fanatics, who in turn, have stacked SCOTUS with the Christian Taliban and highly dangerous ideologues).  

 

These wealthy actors will be the beneficiaries of America’s pending baby boom of unwanted pregnancies… and these children will often grow up to become badly abused and exploitable labor.

 

Shouldn’t the wealthy pay these mothers to produce these children and future labor?  Can you imagine the screams emanating from corporate, ivory towers (if they were to be taxed, appropriately, for unwanted pregnancies)?

 

But alas, we all know Biden’s M.O. by now, and the Democratic establishment’s standard political operating procedure…  which is to talk a great game but deliver absolutely nothing to their voter base: the gay community, labor, minorities, students, and women. 

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2022