Helen Gordon: Human Trafficking within the US: how is it affecting our economy?
Abstract
Human trafficking is the “unlawful act of transporting or coercing people to benefit from their work or service, typically in the form of forced labor or sexual exploitation” (Oxford dictionary). This paper will review where the money goes that is made with human trafficking and its economic effects on a country. In this case, the country that will be looked at will be the United States. With the influx of information being spread about human trafficking, it has come to many people’s attention that this is a substantial black-market program racking in roughly $150 billion a year, according to the International Labor Organization or ILO report from 2014 (human rights first, 2017). About 51 billion comes from exploitation other than commercial sexual exploitation. What is the black market, in any case? The black market is the economic activity outside of the government-sanctioned networks that allow the participants to avoid any governmental laws and regulations like taxes. The profits acquired with human trafficking within the United States causes loss to the overall economy and national security since it is through the black market. How can we lower the statistics of human trafficking to grow the US economy further? With human trafficking collecting such a large amount of income, it drives out a lot of other industries since they are unable to compete with the low costs through illegal workers can provide tax-free.
