Hard to find jobs when you're competing with slaves.

[Atash Hagmahani]

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/September/10-crt-999.html

Some of the slaves ended up on farms here in Washington. It makes me wonder if the employers (agribusiness?) are so totally oblivious to who is doing the work, that these slavers could sneak involuntary laborers into the system.

Hmm, no green cards either, at least, not until the slaves were given green cards after the arrests were made. The farms go through agencies to protect themselves from hiring black market labor directly themselves.

The owner of the slaver company, Mordechai Orian, maintained a tad too high of a profile. Carrie Khan at NPR did a series of reports about him that made him out to be an honest businessman being victimized for political reasons. Other major media also did snowjobs making him look like a victim and a champion of justice. 

His public relations officer conspired with him to evade the FBI as they tried to arrest him. She sent them on wild goose chases as he attempted to make his getaway. They caught up with him in Honolulu.

The gist of the operation was that the targets would be tricked into borrowing large amounts of money in Thailand to pay their placement fees. If they tried to flee back home, they'd get snared by their creditors with no way to pay them back. Similar to a scheme that Levi Strauss and Co. uses (through 3rd party intermediates, to keep themselves out of hot water) to enslave Chinese workers in Saipan. Ironically, blue-jeans were produced to help create a market for cotton and indigo made by Strauss'es slave-plantation-owning associates. The company has always been run by slavers.

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced that a federal grand jury in Honolulu indicted Mordechai Orian, an Israeli national; Pranee Tubchumpol, Shane Germann and Sam Wongsesanit of Global Horizons Manpower Inc., located in Los Angeles; and Thai labor recruiters Ratawan Chunharutai and Podjanee Sinchai for engaging in a conspiracy to commit forced labor and document servitude. The charges arise from the defendants’ alleged scheme to coerce the labor and services of approximately 400 Thai nationals brought by the defendants to the United States from Thailand from May 2004 through September 2005 to work on farms across the country under the U.S. federal agricultural guest worker program. Orian, Tubchumpol and Chunharutai are also charged with three substantive counts of compelling the labor of three Thai guest workers.

If convicted, Orian and Tubchumpol each face maximum sentences of 70 years in prison, Chunharutai faces a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison, Germann and Wongsesanit each face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and Sinchai, who was recently charged in Thailand with multiple counts of recruitment fraud, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison if convicted in the United States.

The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired and devised a scheme to obtain the labor of approximately 400 Thai nationals by enticing them to come to the United States with false promises of lucrative jobs, and then maintaining their labor at farms in Washington and Hawaii through threats of serious economic harm. The defendants arranged for the Thai workers to pay high recruitment fees, which were financed by debts secured with the workers’ family property and homes. Significant portions of these fees went to the defendants themselves. After arrival in the United States, the defendants confiscated the Thai nationals’ passports and failed to honor the employment contracts. The defendants maintained the Thai nationals’ labor by threatening to send them back to Thailand, knowing they would face serious economic harms created by the debts.

The indictment also alleges that the defendants confined a group of Thai guest workers at Maui Pineapple Farm and demanded an additional fee of $3,750 to keep their jobs with Global Horizons. Those workers who refused to pay the additional fee were sent back home to Thailand with unpaid debts, subjecting them to the high risk of losing their family homes and land.

[opsec]

Some people just need to be beaten with a rubber hose.

[Mike]

Debt! The most effective means of controlling one's slaves.

[opsec]

That and engineered famines.

[Dame]

Many of us here are working towards being our own slaves.  Work harder for less but not being fleased as badly.

[Atash Hagmahani]

I take the risk of modern-day slavery very seriously. I think it will actually be serfdom, not outright chattel slavery (except in a few backwaters where chattel slavery really does still occur). Chattel-slavery is as stupid as it is immoral: the slaves have no motivation to work any harder than they think is necessary to avoid a beating, and it's a bad idea to allow them to realize that they're slaves.

A sneakier thing is to create systems that hide the reality behind a complex facade, which includes the debt Mike mentioned, welfare programs, fiat money and credit systems, capital-depletion mechanisms (such as inflation and taxation), public indoctrination cum "education", and so on.

[silverseeds]

I take the risk of modern-day slavery very seriously. I think it will actually be serfdom, not outright chattel slavery (except in a few backwaters where chattel slavery really does still occur). Chattel-slavery is as stupid as it is immoral: the slaves have no motivation to work any harder than they think is necessary to avoid a beating, and it's a bad idea to allow them to realize that they're slaves.

A sneakier thing is to create systems that hide the reality behind a complex facade, which includes the debt Mike mentioned, welfare programs, fiat money and credit systems, capital-depletion mechanisms (such as inflation and taxation), public indoctrination cum "education", and so on.

I take this very seriously as well. Watching what predominantly money changers, IMF, federal reserve and complimentary structures for differing areas. coupled with the attempt to take over the entirety of the food systems, pushing it into what is in reality a un sustainable, and not even superior in the short term system... (although centralized control, the farmers are serfs on their own land) control of info, literally creating realities, in a complex structure, of indoctrinated tenure, to science with agendas(i.e. complying for funding and other ways) a vast control grid is being formed. reality itself being created. Many believe it, many more wouldnt notice either way, and a few like us who see differing aspects of this structure, even if we may disagree on its purpose intent, or destination. I am left to conclude the worst case scenario actually is 1984 ish. heck we are there all ready, its jus not compulsory yet...... all it would take is the majorly controlled financial or food systems to crash, and a generation of degraded conditions for it to be compulsory, or nearly so. desperate people do what they are told. their children having grown up in it, will know no different.

I have plans for a wide range of scenarios. among the most extreme is growing foods, people do not readily know are foods. wild grains, berries most do not know of, wild type greens, (oaks are a good one for that also, being highly edible with processing, but most would never think of it) and the like.... the reason being is there could in time be a play to hinder or limit personal gardens. It sounds extreme now, but in 5 or 10 or 20 years, it may not.

and to DAME...... working to own your own future is not slavery. It certainly can take a good amount of work to take even just the basics of owning your future into your hands. the most basic being food production of which I assume you are referring to. But this actually offers un paralleled freedom. you are indebted only to your own destiny. If a large enough chunk choose to do this, as the world keeps turning, many more may indeed choose to do so...... we will empower ourselves.  We may also be in positions to offer actual solutions to any issues we face, rather then the purposely created cause and planned for effect scenario we seem to be in....... What percentage would it  take to be looked on as a true alternative to the plans I feel are being orchestrated? Impossible to tell, but it may be less then we may assume depending on how things play out.

[Dame]

Here in N. America we are very privilaged; at least relative to most of the worlds population.  And, we are likely going to experience a huge loss of standard of living before equilibrium between ourselves and others is established.  I cringe every time I here the WalMart ad "Live better, for less".  An expression of material competition.  Get the best deal you can for the least you need to pay. 

Trouble is the good deals are mostly based on cheap overseas labour.  How much would each of us have to voluntarily reduce our standard of living, to support domestic wage scales.  How many hours per day would each of us have to forgo paid work or self directed leisure activities to perform our own "menial" services and tasks; or, alternativly, purchase goods and services, priced to provide a living wage to those who are living here sharing our higher costs of living.

[Atash Hagmahani]

I'll make a counter-offer Dame:

I offer to reduce my own wages. I am already working well below going rates, in order to stay competitive. I can go lower, and I can cut a few of my costs, though it is getting tight already. There are "diminishing returns" on much more cost-cutting.

This is what I suggest to all of us. Be competitive. Lower your standard of living so that you can compete, personally, on price of your wages or your product.

But price levels are higher here than they are in other countries!! Yes, but there is no choice. And standards of living are rising in Asia. It should not take too much more sacrifice to be somewhat competitive again.

Much of our overhead is fixed, and it's the result of an overpriced currency (that will change soon!) and too much government overhead. Our biggest risk is that our governments will shift the burden of their costs from being primarily foreigners suffering debasement of the dollars they lend our government, to US in the form of higher taxes that our policymakers are now loudly clamoring for.

[Dame]

I suspect you are right, Atach.  Here in Canada the transfer of public debt to private individuals happened durring the 1990's.  Higher taxes, fewer services, neglected infrastructures.  My guess is that personal debt here is roughly equivalent to that in the States when measured as a percentage of after tax income.  After 20 years we do not notice it as much.

From recent reports (if they can be believed) the current Federal Government here is disinclined to go further into debt.  We will probably have another election over it as stimulus is withdrawn, however, when we go to the polls we can probably generate another minority government.  As minorities they do not have much opportunity to get anything done including spending money (the up side).

Personally, we started the extreame austerity program when we moved to the farm.  It took a number of years, but the improvements in the quality of life have actually more than ofset the reduced standard of living.  I was looking around the house today and concluded we are old, and everything we own is old (most of it antique or retro).  The amusing part is that few of our purchases were produced outside of N. America.

[silverseeds]

  I agree atash....

  the simple fact is, since the 80s at least (before that to, but not nearly as profoundly) our living standard has been artificially inflated...

  imo it was planned but many of the ways it was inflated, are among the reasons it will soon have to change.....

  so OWN your future, live within your means. own your home, buy cars cash or close, cut up credit cards.... and if your real smart get a full scale garden going, or at least more passive fruit and nut trees, and berry bushes, and perennial greens going. I mentioned it before but a hedge of siberian pea shrub is a good idea. the seeds make a bland bean replacement, and will grow themselves. If you need them you have a nice solid drought tolerant nitrogen fixing bean source, all ready established.... Or if you beans fail. Nice and passive.

[The Future]

Once again dame has hit the nail.  I'd say start making long term plans and then doing the work required to generate all your essentials yourself or among your network.  The standard of living is grossly inflated by disadvantaged workers (aka cheap labour).  Every able bodied person can create far more than they consume but the way of ease has taken over from fair, balanced, "what you give is what you get" principles.  Secure a home.  Secure food.  Be in position to trade excesses for niceities.  Math vs. capitalism has a predictable outcome.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Oh no another one!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100917/ts_alt_afp/usphilippinesjusticelabor_20100917215957

Different people, same scheme! Across the other side of the country. Whaddya wanna bet that this is now an entrenched scheme that dishonest, unscrupulous people are learning about from each other?!

The scheme is to get these people to borrow money to pay for the ostensible service of finding jobs in the USA for them, and transportation fees. The gullible dupes borrow the money thinking they can pay it back with earnings, pay the slavers who use the money to transport them to their destination, and are surprised to discover they end up as slaves!

I've heard of this scheme going on in other countries or protectorates, but these two incidents are the first time I've heard of it happening in the mainland USA.

I bet, once again, that the hotels and country clubs had a "no ask, no tell" policy regarding where their labor came from. 3rd party contracted to protect them from criminal charges. 

Manuel and Baldonado "conspired to obtain a cheap, compliant and readily available labor pool, by making false promises to entice the victims to incur debts," read a Department of Justice statement, quoting court documents.

"The defendants then compelled the victims' labor and services through threats to have the workers arrested and deported, knowing the workers faced serious economic harm and possible incarceration for nonpayment of debts in the Philippines."

Once the workers arrived at Manuel and Baldonado's Florida residence, the couple confiscated their passports, then "housed them in overcrowded, substandard conditions without adequate food or drinking water; put them to work at area country clubs and hotels for little or no pay; required them to remain in the defendants' service, unpaid when there was insufficient work."

They ordered them not to leave the premises without permission and "threatened to have the workers arrested and deported for complaining about these terms and conditions," the statement said.

Manuel also pleaded guilty to lying in an application filed with the US Labor Department to obtain foreign labor certifications and visas under the federal H2B guest worker program.

[Mike]

They ordered them not to leave the premises without permission and "threatened to have the workers arrested and deported for complaining about these terms and conditions," the statement said.

We have the same system in the US, but so much more sophisticated.  American slaves are trained to believe the rest of the world is dangerous.

American slavery is sooo much more sophisticated: The debt slaves don't know they are slaves.

[Atash Hagmahani]

American slavery is sooo much more sophisticated: The debt slaves don't know they are slaves.

Which is why I think neoFeudalism and neoSerfdom are bigger risks than chattel slavery per-se. Outright slavers are still getting in trouble. OTOH the Lords and Ladies of the new Feudalism have the full support and cooperation of the government.

They use debt as a means of control, yes, and this is part of a broader scheme of economic blackmail backed by the threat of economic starvation.

"It has been said 'who does not work does not eat'. Now we give you a new rule: 'who does not obey does not eat'."--attributed to Leon Bronstein alias "Trotsky"

In an economy where high taxes, high government spending, and chronic inflation are capital-depleting, who does not have access to the fountains of fiat credit creation does not have access to the means to create profit opportunities or employment opportunities. Instead, those who do have access to the fountains of credit creation decide who is allowed to start a business, and who is not, and who gets a job particularly when jobs are tight, and who does not, and under what terms.

Many people assumed that Americans would remain "free" as long as they had voting rights and gun-rights. The problem is they gave away their property rights when they failed to say "no" to mechanisms that depleted private capital.