NEWSBYDAVID BATSTONE AND BAMA ATHREYA

When is a bargain not a bargain? When someone else’s child pays for our kid’s gift.

This holiday season not every child will be free to play with new toys; an estimated 211 million child laborers exist worldwide, with no access to education and no option but grueling work. Traffickers lure many millions of the young away from their families, while millions more are born into debt bondage and forced to work as slaves. Who among us would deny that forced child labor should cease to exist in the 21st century? Though not many of us are capable of undermining the trafficking rings that exploit children, we can change the demand for the products these children make, in no small part fueled by pressure from global retailers and their price wars.

This past week the US business media treated the price war between two retail behemoths, Wal-Mart and Amazon.com, like it was no more than an exciting boxing match. Sure, we appreciate the terrific consumer choice and great bargains that these retailers make possible. What we don’t see, however, is that someone else is absorbing the cost that brings us these savings. The relentless downward pressure on suppliers to deliver products at ever lower costs means that producers in hidden corners of the world, from Brazil to Bangladesh, turn to extreme forms of exploitation to produce those goods. That’s something to consider as we stand in long lines fighting with other shoppers to grab a great bargain gift for our kids.