It can be summarized as avarice: the greed for money and power. African tribes raided a different tribes' village and sold the captives to anyone who would buy them, whether it was African, Moslem, English, French, or American. For example, the English used to buy them from the Moslem slave traders, but they then bought them directly from the Africans to cut out the middle-man. This free labour meant a huge increase in profits for business owners and their shareholders (ie the upper class ), and for the middle-class the creation of better and new employment with some jobs still to be invented.However, there was little change for the lower classes, with the jobs no-one else wanted done by the people no-one wanted or cared about. Avarice knows no boundaries, whether social, political, or racial, but slavery is still going on today. This ranges from the forcible capturing, kidnapping, and transportation, as in the traditional view of slavery (which is still going on), to coercion and pressure for a better (even marginally) way of life and future than at present. This crosses all boundaries and cultures, no matter how self-righteous.
Examples are:
-Countries importing cheaper products despite knowing they are produced by workers who are paid very little if at all, or by children.
- The manufacturing and sale of products despite knowing they are produced by workers in 'sweatshops'.
-Kidnapping of women for brides or prostitution.
-For racial and religous 'purification', ultimately ending in genocide.
-Deliberate destruction of a native culture.
-A "Greed is Good" philosophy and culture.
- Targeting the unemployed (eg "Work for the Dole" programmes)
-Law-and-Order programmes overly-representative of and often deliberately targeting the lower-classes, unemployed, indigenous (Aborigines, American Indians, Incas, Maoris ), immigrants (eg Hispanic, Negro, Chinese, Gypsies) (eg in "Three strikes and you're out" programmes or similar)
-Different treatment of the rich compared with the poor.
-Refusal to support 'whistle-blowers' or anyone who 'rocks the boat'.
First answer by David Eaglehawk. Last edit by David Eaglehawk. Contributor trust: 85 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 1 [recommend question]
