Sweatshops
from Radley Balko, writing for foxnews.com. It's a story that most Mises.org readers know, that anyone who reads NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof knows, and that anyone who paid attention in an economics class knows: sweatshops are a godsend for the sweatshop worker.
Unfortunately, of course, there are many among us who do not read Mises Institute publications, who skip over Kristof to read Bob Herbert, and who slept through their economics classes, if they took any at all (consider: one can get a bachelors, masters, and PhD in political science without taking a single economics class. Frightening, no?).
There are several takeaway points. Theory and evidence suggest that sweatshops are far superior to third-world workers' next best options (starvation, prostitution, crime). Moreover, the availability of sweatshop labor drives down production costs and allows us to turn mere "resources" into "goods" with astonishing rapidity.
So what is the humanitarian to do, if he wishes to alleviate the plight of the downtrodden masses? The answer is simple: shift the demand curve for the downtrodden masses' labor services. How does one do this? Again, the answer is simple: think globally and act locally. In other words, put down your "living wage" picket sign and actually go into the Wal-Mart you hate so much. Buy as much sweatshop clothing as you can fit into your car. Convince all your friends to do the same. The evil capitalists will get the signal: "produce more cheap, high-quality goods because it's astonishingly profitable." Translation: build another factory in Bangladesh and hire some people. Of course, you're going to have to give them an incentive to work for you instead of somebody else, which means that you will have to...increase wages and improve working conditions.
So what does the humanitarian get at the end of the day? He gets better working conditions and higher wages for the allegedly downtrodden masses. And he doesn't even need an "uprising of the proletariat" to do it.
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Buy more stuff: So what is the humanitarian to do, if he wishes to alleviate the plight of the downtrodden masses? The answer is simple: shift the demand curve for the downtrodden masses’ labor services. How does one do this?... Read More
Buy more stuff: So what is the humanitarian to do, if he wishes to alleviate the plight of the downtrodden masses? The answer is simple: shift the demand curve for the downtrodden masses’ labor services. How does one do this?... Read More
Reaction to my Fox piece over at the Mises Institute's blog:So what is the humanitarian to do, if he wishes... Read More
Reaction to my Fox piece over at the Mises Institute's blog:So what is the humanitarian to do, if he wishes... Read More
At Catallachy Micha Ghertner prescribes collective consumer action to solve the problem of third world poverty:Luckily, when it comes to issues like sweatshop labor, there is something we, as private Read More
Comments (5)
Those who talk about the "deplorable conditions" of sweatshops have a rather less pleasant underlying agenda. No matter how their logic works, there is one critical assumption they must make. This assumption is that third world workers are too stupid to make their own descisions. Indeed, there is an undercurrent of white supremacy among activists- we must help them, we are qualified to make choices for them. Often, these are the same people who decry outsourcing of jobs to foreign (by which they always mean non-white) countries.
Published: May 7, 2004 3:38 PM
"How does one do this? Again, the answer is simple: think globally and act locally. In other words, put down your "living wage" picket sign and actually go into the Wal-Mart you hate so much. Buy as much sweatshop clothing as you can fit into your car. Convince all your friends to do the same. The evil capitalists will get the signal: "produce more cheap, high-quality goods because it's astonishingly profitable."
Is that a serious proposal?
Because some seem to think so but I say it doesn't make sense.
Published: May 7, 2004 6:01 PM
You seem to share an unstated assumption common to much pro-globalization boilerplate, that sweatshops are mainly a product of "laissez-faire," and that whatever benefits large corporations is a useful approximation of the "free market."
What if the range of "next best options" reflects the fact that the state actively suppresses some free market options for working people in the Third World? And TNCs wouldn't be engaged in any *collusion* with Third World states to reduce the range of options, now, hmmmmmm? Could it be that sweatshop employers are attracted to the most authoritarian banana republics (not to mention workers' paradises like China) precisely *because* the states there reduce the market pressure to compete for labor?
So, despite S. O'Hara's strawman, the stupidity or incompetence of Third World laborers is not an assumption that anti-sweatshop activists "must" make.
If labor isn't free, increasing the amount of its product you buy isn't going to help it. In that case, why not call for buying the product of Chinese prison labor on "humanitarian" grounds? How about soap made in Auschwitz?
And while I'm at it, I'm not in favor of trade barriers of any kind against the product of foreign labor. I'd just like to stop the U.S. government from the harm it's doing by propping up unpleasant regimes abroad and subsidizing the export of capital. Unlike most "anti-globalists," I see the state as the central cause of the problem, and a totally unfettered market as the best solution.
Published: May 8, 2004 10:57 AM
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