3071-The political economy of new slavery

202 Strategies for Change
middle-class individual, who is encouraged to profit from this market.
The Global Forex 1 website explains that
now the foreign exchange [forex] market has been opened up to
individual investors...unlike the sums of money previously required
by the banks and brokerage firms, comparatively low margin requirements
are finally available that now allow virtually any individual to
trade along with the professionals and institutions.
Global Forex
The language of this website reflects an appeal to people’s desire for
thrill: ‘because of the advantages of sheer volume and daily volatility,
excitement of this market is unparalleled’ (Global Forex). The detrimental
effects of currency speculation on the lives of real people are not
mentioned and the fact that this market is only minimally regulated is
heralded. This shows the underlying neo-liberal stance, which prioritizes
market freedom over human well-being.
This chapter assesses the state of the debate surrounding the Tobin
tax. It makes the argument that the tax poses a workable mechanism
to decrease the volatility of financial markets and yields resources to
fund global solutions to global problems enhanced by poverty, such as
contemporary slavery. The chapter draws attention to the structural
disadvantages of the vast number of disempowered people who are at
the mercy of a global economy with no means of controlling their own
welfare within it. Furthermore, the argument seeks to overcome the
conceptual resistance to social justice movements by unpacking the
political and economic interests behind theories that are portrayed as
common-sensical within conventional notions of economic theory and
trust in the freedom of the market. This dominant ideology of neoliberalism,
which emphasizes the priority of economics over politics by
calling for less intervention in economic processes, is questioned. Whereas
unregulated financial markets are proposed as a way to maximize profit
for the benefit of all, in reality such a policy operates only for the
benefit of those that are already at a structural advantage within the
system. In other words, a just distribution of power and wealth, based
upon notions of equality, is disregarded. For this reason, arguments
against a Tobin tax are unpacked to expose them for what they are;
namely arguments in favour of maintaining a status quo in which
human exploitation can thrive.