On econlib.org, Benjamin Powell discusses sweatshop labor:
Contrary to his assertion, anti-sweatshop laws would make third world workers worse off by lowering the demand for their labor. As his testimony alludes to though, such laws would make some American workers better off because they would no longer have to compete with third world labor: U.S. consumers would be, to some extent, a captive market. Although Kernaghan and some other opponents of sweatshops claim that they are attempting to help third world workers, their true motives are revealed by the language of one of these pieces of legislation: “Businesses have a right to be free from competition with companies that use sweatshop labor.”
Ultimately Powell argues that sweatshops are better than many of the less-grueling alternatives, and that they are no different than the conditions in western countries during the industrial revolution.
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