In Roman and Greek times slavery was seen as a completely normal economic solution because most every task requires many times the amount of labor that it would now. Granted I believe that slavery is horrible, but up until somewhat recently (before the civil war) very few people agreed with me. It was looked at as being completely normal.

Before the civil war this view on slavery began to change. People realized that owning people has many fundemental moral issues. Many European nations began to change their outlook on slavery, and pressured the United States to do the same. After one of the bloodiest war the United States has ever seen, slavery was abolished in the united states.

...or so we thought. Upon gaining their freedom many former slaves had little or no monetary wealth and were forced to take the same jobs that they had as slaves. Because they were paid very little (if anything) they went into debt and became debt slaves.

Debt slaves in the traditional sense are workers who, because of high debts, have to sell them selves into slavery. A debt slave can also be a person who has a very low paying job. They cannot live on their income, and are forced to borow money. They don't have the money to repay their loaner and are forced to stay in that low paying job until their debts are repaid.

Slavery has continued around the world ever since the civil war. Be it the daughter of poor families who are sold as prostitutes, the imigrant slaves who can't find work, the African diamond miners, slavery still exists.

What do you suggest we do about it?

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Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find anything...

Show your kids you love them by buying them the No. 7 brand.

The only thing i can see solving this, is a more watchful eye... perhaps secret agents (which im sure are already out there) or simply becoming more strict and thorough in the police.

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"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the
same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."
- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Or maybe we create enough technological infrastructure that a working class is no longer required and the entirity of the human race is devoted to higher learning and politics..

6.2 billion politicians...oh boy...

Talk about hell...

This problem are easily solved, just refuse to buy products from slavers. This will of course force you to give up some ultra cheap foreign imports but that it the prize you will have to pay to force those manufacturers to pay their workers real wages. A warning thou, not all slave products are cheap imports, some are actually well know high value brands...

So maybe you can give a list of "slaver" products?

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Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find anything...

Show your kids you love them by buying them the No. 7 brand.

I was mainly thinking at sweat shops at the time, here are some info about this problem.
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/
http://www.behindthelabel.org/pdf/Retailindus.pdf

I did however to my horror find this text when I searched for information about sweat shops.
http://www.thesunmagazine.org/slavery.html

Thease are only simple examples but they do show that there is a problem out there.

The world is becoming increasingly global. As economically marginal countries move to becoming service based economies, won't the number of debt slaves decrease? As nations move to become greater consumers won't sweat shops and the like become less a less popular form of labor with "conscientious" consumer nations? (take a look at Nike practices in Asia)

I think as the free flow of products and the development of marginal nations progresses. Your debt slaves will become increasingly endangered.

Do you think that there are still slaves of sorts in the U.S. or other developed nations? If so, who are they?

The world is becoming increasingly global. As economically marginal countries move to becoming service based economies, won't the number of debt slaves decrease? As nations move to become greater consumers won't sweat shops and the like become less a less popular form of labor with "conscientious" consumer nations? (take a look at Nike practices in Asia)

I think as the free flow of products and the development of marginal nations progresses. Your debt slaves will become increasingly endangered.

Do you think that there are still slaves of sorts in the U.S. or other developed nations? If so, who are they?