Laura Walk
AP Seminar Individual Group Essay
14 January 2015
Human Trafficking: An Economic Lens The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States” . However, even in the 21st century, slavery endures within the “Land of the Free”. Human trafficking is a modern slavery, defined as the act of transporting, buying, or selling people for purposes of exploitation, including prostitution, sexual exploitation, forced labor, and the removal of organs. An estimated 2.5 million people are being trafficked worldwide at this moment. While the majority of human trafficking takes place in underdeveloped and third world countries, a startling amount occurs …show more content…
A critical reason why the human trafficking industry continues to grow and remains viable is profit. In 2010 an article published by International Migration, a peer-reviewed journal, economics professors Wheaton, Schauer, and Galli found that the human trafficking industry can be modeled as a monopolistically competitive industry; an industry with many producers selling differentiated products. Employers, or recipients of trafficked labor serve as consumers; trafficked individuals represent the product, while traffickers themselves serve as middlemen connecting supply of labor in source areas with demand in destination areas. The commercial exploitation involved in human trafficking results in the restriction of agency of trafficked individuals, causing human beings to become “commodified” and treated as a product in an economic system. Economic analysts have found the driving motive behind trafficking to be profit; the trafficking industry generates an estimated $32 billion annually. Because of its comparatively high price of labor, the United States serves as a prime destination country for trafficked individuals. Worldwide, a trafficked individual generates an average of $13,000, however, in the US, it can be as much as $100,000. Nita Belles, an anti-trafficking advocate, author, and speaker describes, “It makes sense if you think about it. Human trafficking follows money. America, being the richest nation in the world, stands to reward human traffickers with some of the highest profits
AP Seminar Individual Group Essay
14 January 2015
Human Trafficking: An Economic Lens The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States” . However, even in the 21st century, slavery endures within the “Land of the Free”. Human trafficking is a modern slavery, defined as the act of transporting, buying, or selling people for purposes of exploitation, including prostitution, sexual exploitation, forced labor, and the removal of organs. An estimated 2.5 million people are being trafficked worldwide at this moment. While the majority of human trafficking takes place in underdeveloped and third world countries, a startling amount occurs …show more content…
A critical reason why the human trafficking industry continues to grow and remains viable is profit. In 2010 an article published by International Migration, a peer-reviewed journal, economics professors Wheaton, Schauer, and Galli found that the human trafficking industry can be modeled as a monopolistically competitive industry; an industry with many producers selling differentiated products. Employers, or recipients of trafficked labor serve as consumers; trafficked individuals represent the product, while traffickers themselves serve as middlemen connecting supply of labor in source areas with demand in destination areas. The commercial exploitation involved in human trafficking results in the restriction of agency of trafficked individuals, causing human beings to become “commodified” and treated as a product in an economic system. Economic analysts have found the driving motive behind trafficking to be profit; the trafficking industry generates an estimated $32 billion annually. Because of its comparatively high price of labor, the United States serves as a prime destination country for trafficked individuals. Worldwide, a trafficked individual generates an average of $13,000, however, in the US, it can be as much as $100,000. Nita Belles, an anti-trafficking advocate, author, and speaker describes, “It makes sense if you think about it. Human trafficking follows money. America, being the richest nation in the world, stands to reward human traffickers with some of the highest profits