Week 11 Global Citizenry

11/8/2014

What is your Slavery Footprint?

Complete this survey. The survey is an eleven question tool designed to measure the amount of unpaid/forced labor that it takes to supply us with consumer goods. Throughout the semester you learned about the various aspects of our social, political, and economic systems. This survey is to help bring some of these concepts "home".

Once you complete the survey answer the following questions in your blog post.

Describe your consumption habits (shopping). What do you spend your money on and why? Do you believe that what you spend your money on impacts other people, why or why not? Explain your reasoning. Lastly, tell the class how many slaves are attached to your lifestyle. Explain why you think you earned that number.

Requirements for BLOG POSTS

You must write 250 words each post (due Thursday @ Midnight), Responses to two other students 50 words each (due Friday @ midnight)
Students must post during the week the blog is assigned or it will not be graded.

13 Comments

Deante Climon

11/13/2014 11:09:06 am

While taking the survey i started to realize i am using un nessesary devices that i have no use over. I realiz that I might be burning to much energy. some devices such as my Cd player is still sitting inside the Garrage. I feel that America is a Privalege nation that dumps its old electronics back the third world develped countires, a certain ways to donate absulete electronics that lower develped countries use and also create new ways to transmit energy sources through absulete electronic part. There was a young boy from Africa who created a radio from old absulete electronic material. somehow he made it work and received radio waves and was able to supply his village with music. He is now at M.I.T studying more about electonics. by educating and creating school of electronic for countries who suffer from child labor and slavory, maybe they can make a difference in their villages and countries as well. my comsumption of shopping tends to be very limited. i try to look for the most recent trends but still trying to save money. I have been going to the forgien exchange which is very Ironic because their clothes are made in Mexico. I might be supporting child slavery without even knowing. along with my smart phone and beats head phones, i noticed after the survey i have 29 slaves working for me. I would love to start making my own clothes and growing my own food and using my own source of energy, but I am Afraid they will point fingers and call me a Communist. ( Commie)

sharon clark

11/14/2014 06:24:05 am

in this case im not much of a gadget freak but it does pay to know a little bit about technology in today word.shopping for electronic devices can become very expensive, especially when a legacy never end and there is ton of money to be made.to be privilege is right in many cases such as having a driver license to owning property tings of that sort just to name a few so its just best not to blow your cover word to the wise.

Kim Shaw

11/14/2014 11:05:38 am

We often put our wants to the side because we care too much about what others think. I have been guilty of that more that I care to admit. We have to learn to do what is best for us and our well-being and not worry about what others think.

11/13/2014 03:55:46 pm

I am trying to think how I would describe my shopping habits. I am definitely not a shopaholic. I think on a scale of 1-10 I would consider myself a 5. I don’t shop often. I don’t go store to store shopping the clearance racks, but I do shop the clearance racks and sections when I do shop. I am not a Black Friday camp out, stand in line shopper. I have not and never plan on standing in a line for the newest pair of shoes or piece of electronics. However I do like to shop and I love a great bargain. I am a couponer, but no an extreme couponer. When money allows I like to have enough of the necessities for me and my children. What I do enjoy is traveling and when I travel I pull out all the stops. I will pay top dollar for the best vacation ever. I believe that you get what you pay for and when I travel, I want the best and I don’t mind paying for it. I believe that if I have worked hard to make the money and when it’s time to travel I want to have the best time possible. I love to travel and will travel just about anywhere, however I prefer the beaches and the islands. I enjoy traveling with my immediate family, extended family, and friends as well as along. I have never thought about how my spending habits affect anyone other than myself and my family, however I’m sure it does. I think about the “bargains” I have gotten from Walmart and now I wonder was it really a bargain if the person that made it or packaged it is being paid pennies. If I think about traveling and how that impacts people it makes me wonder if the people that are working on the planes, making the parts, building them etc. are being paid even close to what I have paid for the vacations I’ve taken or are they just making just enough to get by. I have to say that I make sure I tip and I tip well and I feel good about that because you never know what they are being paid for making sure I am comfortable and having the best time possible.
I have 57 slaves working for me and I would probably have more if they had vacationing in the survey. I got that number I think from the electronics that are in my home although I don’t have much I do have almost one of all the popular gadget. I also think I have a lot from clothing because of my children and household items.

11/14/2014 06:20:29 am

it can be kind of complicated when it comes to something pertaining to self. i also have a problem with address situation about me.shopping as needed and shopping excessive are to different things.the smarter shopping habit would be to shop according to what you need and not what you want.

Sarah Salazar

11/21/2014 02:42:31 am

I thought I had a lot of slaves at 51, but I think that your score went up because you have children, and children need a lot of things to keep them clothed and entertained. I applaud you in giving good tips, I was a waitress for a while, and the job was too stressful for the amount of money I got paid. However, when people gave me good tips, it would totally make my night.

11/14/2014 06:18:02 am

my shopping habits is manageable but ridiculously coordinated for each day.as i think about spending money i think cheap so that i can get more for my money. i don't to much care about the finer things in life but i do consider class and swag now this is just fashion because i like to look good. now to break things up i also like to sell good so i buy fragrance that catches the eyes of another habit i got of shopping is buying expensive food to support my healthy diet to remain lean. everything else on the list can be considered as minuet.i do feel like i impact other people with my shopping habits in a way because i receive complements when they are due.there are 46 slaves attached to my lifestyle.i earned that number because there aren't that many people who care about materialistic things maybe they do.

11/14/2014 11:00:25 am

I am all for getting more for you money, looking for the best bargain. I also agree with spending your money on what is important to you such as a healthy diet. It is very unfortunate that we have to spend so much more on food that is healthy for us.

11/14/2014 02:45:07 pm

I agree its best to spend your money wisely. my brother and law and i googled how much the minimun wage is in India, the minimun wage in India is 0.26 cent. you mean to tell me someones life is only worth 0.26 cents? corporations tend to make a 130% profit and even more beause of cheap labor. meanwhile these people in India have skills worth way more than they are paid. we are starting to see alot of our doctors from other countries, most of these doctors are paid less than American doctors as well.

Alex Diaz

11/18/2014 12:30:48 pm

My shopping habits are mostly based on clothing and electronics. The reason I believe I spend a lot of my money on clothing because its therapeutic for me. I like to buy new clothes and gear. Secondly electronics, the reason that I believe I waste a lot of money on electronics is because a lot of work that I do has a need or demand for electronics. Examples would be a laptop of school, headphones and stereo system because I like to work with music, etc. I know that these two have a huge impact on many children and adults around the world because they are producing items and objects for nearly nothing an hour. This causes many families to not be able to get sufficient amount of resources for a healthy lifestyle and even be able to speak about the inequality and injustice thus, rendering them completely silnced and hopeless to the rest of the world. Large corporations make tons of money then just sit on the profits they made not pumping it back into the economy causing many economic instabilities and inflations. I have 34slaves working for me. The reason I believe that I have so many slaves is because I constantly want to have the new stuff instead of being happy with the old and I break things fairly easily causing me to have to buy new things constantly. I believe the best way for me to lower the amount of slaves that I have is by not being so self conscious and just being happy with what I already have as opposed to wanting to have everything better than the next person.

11/21/2014 02:12:58 am

Before taking the survey, I thought I was going to have like a million slaves because I love shopping! I shop in regular stores, but I also shop at second hands stores to find vintage dresses or skirts. While I was taking the survey, I realized that I might nor have so many slaves because I don't owe many electronics,just my cell phone and the iMac that I share with my family. Also, I don't play sports, and I don't owe a car or motorcycle. I usually take the bus, or get a ride with a family member. According to the survey, I have 51 slaves. I answered every question honestly, and fine tuned all the answers, to give more a more accurate answer. I was reading the other comments from every one else, and now I'm actually a little nervous because it looks like I have the most! That's really scary. I think I have to give my shopping addiction a rest. I know that most of my clothes and shoes are made by people in the poorest countries, and when I pay $6 for a blouse that's on sale, that just shows how poorly the workers get paid. I think that in order to reduce my score in the future, I will do more thrift shopping.

Dulce Fajardo

11/21/2014 01:33:16 pm

I go shopping for quite a big number of things every now and then. Specifically if I notice that my clothes/shoes look worn out, but clothing more and more frequently is becoming “worn out” relatively fast. Maybe it’s because I go towards clearance half of the time, but that just means that everything, not only clearance, is made to last definitely less than a year, a lot of times less than 6 months. We may never know what kind of people work in the factories making the products/objects we buy, but the real value of the product will never be captured. What I buy does impact others because the more we consume the more money the company makes and it’ll never disappear and the employees will remain. 59 slaves are attached to my lifestyle and I think that is so because I do own a lot of clothing, shoes, electronics and many other such items I don’t even use that often. Since I dispose of half of those items by the year, the other half by half a year, then I will keep having that number of slaves attached because I will keep purchasing the same or similar items over and over again. I also believe that women would have more “slaves” than men because of makeup and extra jewelry.

Sorasak prasertsri

11/21/2014 05:01:21 pm

Under the George H.W. Bush administration, in December 1989 the U.S. Military, unilaterally and in violation with international law, invaded the country of Panama. Manuel Antonio Noriega was overthrown as dictator of Panama.
One the main factor to contribute to the invasion of Panama would the the capute of Manuel Antonio Noriega. He had been on the CIA's Payroll in the 1970's and early 1980's but also ended up working for the Medellin drug cartel and the Cuban Government which were both big adversaries of the United States. The Bush administration was also pushing there campaign for the war on drugs. Noriega also allowed many to launder illegal drug money at Panama banks.Another reason for military involvement in Panama would be control of the Panama Canal which is an important channel of water to control.
The U.S. Military is always involved in other countries affaire acting to police the world only to look for angles to take advantage of situation that will benefit the U.S. Weather it be war or global aid, it's only to make more money and power. The invasion of Panama was over a decade ago and the list of countries that the U.S. Military has invaded grows longer and longer and nothing good has come from their presence in other countries. The government should take care of local issues before the think they can fix international affaire.

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