Your bargain could be coming at someone else's expense.

The expanding global economy requires corporations to seek out the cheapest possible labor. With free trade has come an explosion of global inequality. This inequality makes it possible for consumers to buy more and more while paying less and less.

Some insist that the business sector's efforts to tap into the seemingly unlimited pool of cheap labor in poorer countries are all about free market economics.

This remains largely ignored by the American consumer.

Businesses that sell low-cost goods manufactured overseas by workers who are allegedly paid less than the minimum wage, forced to work long hours, not given overtime pay and even beaten in order to keep them working grueling shifts have become easy targets for human rights groups. Businesses that at one time urged consumers to "Buy American" are now among the largest importers of goods made in China, which is one of the world's worst labor abusers.

Wealthy as we are in the Unites States, living and eating off the fruits of their labor, we can honestly say we are unaware or that the problem is simply too great to comprehend. We do not to think about it."

We must think about it. And in thinking about it, at some point we must realize that there is a moral dimension to our buying habits. As long as we are willing to buy, buy, buy at lower and lower prices without a care for how those goods were produced or where they came from, corporations will continue to seek out cheap labor, which invariably goes hand in hand with inhumane working conditions.

We should take a moral stand against sweatshop labor. Jesus urged his followers to reach out to the less fortunate. If Christians would boycott businesses that perpetuate inhumane labor practices and working conditions, it could go a long way toward changing conditions around the world.

The next time you head out the door in search of another great deal, remember that your bargain could be coming at someone else's expense.