Prostitution, human trafficking and slavery are an integral part of unregulated capitalism and will be impossible to eradicate until we are willing to morally gird ourselves to bring unruly, heedless, amoral capitalism under human rule for the benefit of humans and society, rather than functioning as a ungoverned portal of wealth and profit for a very few.

The wealthiest 10 percent of the world’s population own 86 percent of the world’s assets; the wealthiest 1 percent own and control nearly half of the world’s assets. Accumulation of wealth and property add up to total power for the few if humanity is not given a voice in the distribution of wealth and goods that their labor and ingenuity contribute to the world.

Unfortunately, we are in the throes of a moral morass, the legacy of the cheerleading whore of unregulated capitalism, said Ayn Rand, who unquestionably advocated “full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism …. The moral justification of capitalism lies in the fact that it is the only system consonant with man’s rational nature, that it protects man’s survival qua man, and that its ruling principle is: justice.”

What justice if people starve? What justice if women and children are pressed into prostitution in order to survive?

When profits, consumption and capitalism rule supreme over human lives and the basic principles of humanity and fundamental human rights, hundreds of workers die in the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh, because, internationally, poor industry regulations or oversight enable minimum standards of pay, workplace safety and other conditions of work.

Women, children, even many men, have their humanity taken from them and they are reduced to exploitable commodities, mere objects that serve to enrich, sensually please, and in every way gratify the whims and caprices of the very wealthy. If we fail to grasp that incredibly ugly and demeaning reality, we cannot hope to end human trafficking, slavery and prostitution.

Karen Hedwig Backman, Federal Way