The Chain
Americans, myself included, believe that slavery ended with the conclusion of the Civil War. There is a shop in St. Joseph, Bound For Freedom. The phrase refers to the underground railroad, the route north taken by escaped slaves. The Bound For Freedom shop offers “fair trade” items produced by individuals in third world countries. The relationship between the proprietors of Bound For Freedom and their suppliers is a mindful attempt to provide a market for the goods such that a significant financial return is retained by the producers. The idea is at variance with the usual capitalist doctrine, buy low and sell high. The middle man pockets the 
difference. I went in the shop and briefly chatted with the young male and female behind the counter. We agreed that “freedom” is a complicated matter.
My thoughts returned to the Civil War memorial on display in the park a short walk from the Bound for Freedom shop. The massive 11 inch Dahlgren gun weighs in at 15,800 pounds. It is a weapon, a necessary tool if you will, to force open the clenched fist of chattel slavery anchoring the economy of the old South. Plantation owners, slave traders, and the bankers who financed the system could no more have been convinced of the immorality of slavery than a pig could have been taught to fly. The point was disputed for over 20 years without resolution. War came. Guns like this one made a difference.
My thoughts turned to the thousands who earn less than a livelihood working at a Wal-Mart store. The pay is at most, $13.00 per hour. Of that one third is deducted for taxes. What is left? Not enough, not nearly enough. I thought also of Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder/job creator, celebrated genius, feted by mayors and governors for building many warehouse fulfillment centers to handle the logistics of the mammoth purveyor of nearly everything. I confess that I buy books from Amazon. Bezos is a genius of ambition, brilliant to understand how convenience features into desire. However a Amazon warehouse associate earns $12.53 an hour, a bit less than a Wal-Mart store employee. And employee performance is measured, with relentless oversight.
In the past times, when I was younger, these were entry level jobs and one had legitimate expectation of moving on to higher value, better paying work. Those days are a memory. Wal-Mart and Amazon are quasi monopolies having eliminated thousands of smaller companies within their market space.
This appears to be a 21st century mode of slavery to me; a inevitable consignment to debt. After all how is one to raise a child, pay for transportation, pay for medical care? It is a promised future of endless repetition, a meaningless act of sacrifice on the altar of debt. Debt is the chain of 21st century slavery.
