Anti-Sweatshop Movement
The Anti-Sweatshop Movement Does More Harm Than It Helps
Westchester Community College
Economics 101
December 4, 2012 When discussing the anti-sweatshop movement, people seem to feel as though much more should be done to shut down sweatshops or to help workers gain higher wages and have better work conditions. Most economists, however, feel as though shutting down of sweatshops or raising wages and work conditions would hurt these third world economies. According to Benjamin Powell and David Sarbek’s report, Sweatshops and Third World Living Standards: Are the Jobs Worth the Sweat?, “Most economists view so-called sweatshops as a benefit to the third world and recognize that the anti-sweatshop activists’ activities could reduce third world employment and investment, thus making workers worse off. “ Most sweatshop workers are being paid more than their national average income. The alternatives to working in a sweatshop would place them far worse off. Many times you hear the comparison to American standard of living when discussing these conditions. Unfortunately, the standard of living and the average income in these third world countries is miniscule compared to America’s.
Most of us have a mental picture of what a sweatshop is, probably a big room crammed with sweating harassed workers in a relatively miserable and abusive environment. How did they come into existence? They didn 't start with the recent proliferation of sneaker and clothing factories in Asia. Sweatshops began long before that when third-world people living in poverty came out of garbage dumps where they had been attempting to find some shred of useful material, out of poorly producing fields where they had been attempting to produce some meager food for subsistence, out of prostitution, starvation and unemployment and took what to them surely appeared to be steps in a better direction. They banded together in a cramped home and found employment supplying their labor to
Westchester Community College
Economics 101
December 4, 2012 When discussing the anti-sweatshop movement, people seem to feel as though much more should be done to shut down sweatshops or to help workers gain higher wages and have better work conditions. Most economists, however, feel as though shutting down of sweatshops or raising wages and work conditions would hurt these third world economies. According to Benjamin Powell and David Sarbek’s report, Sweatshops and Third World Living Standards: Are the Jobs Worth the Sweat?, “Most economists view so-called sweatshops as a benefit to the third world and recognize that the anti-sweatshop activists’ activities could reduce third world employment and investment, thus making workers worse off. “ Most sweatshop workers are being paid more than their national average income. The alternatives to working in a sweatshop would place them far worse off. Many times you hear the comparison to American standard of living when discussing these conditions. Unfortunately, the standard of living and the average income in these third world countries is miniscule compared to America’s.
Most of us have a mental picture of what a sweatshop is, probably a big room crammed with sweating harassed workers in a relatively miserable and abusive environment. How did they come into existence? They didn 't start with the recent proliferation of sneaker and clothing factories in Asia. Sweatshops began long before that when third-world people living in poverty came out of garbage dumps where they had been attempting to find some shred of useful material, out of poorly producing fields where they had been attempting to produce some meager food for subsistence, out of prostitution, starvation and unemployment and took what to them surely appeared to be steps in a better direction. They banded together in a cramped home and found employment supplying their labor to
References: Powell, Benjamin & Sarbek, David (2004, September 27) Sweatshops and Third-World Living Standards: Are the Jobs Worth the Sweat? Written for The Independent Institute Retrieved on November 25, 2012 at: http://www.independent.org/pdf/working_papers/53_sweatshop.pdf Powell, Benjamin (2008, June 2) In Defense of “Sweatshops” Article featured on the Library of Economics and Liberty website. Retrieved on November 26, 2012 at: http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2008/Powellsweatshops.html Kristof, Nicholas D. (2009, January 15) Where Sweatshops Are A Dream Column for the New York Times. Retrieved on November 28, 2012 at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15kristof.html?_r=0 Bender, Daniel E., Greenwald, Richard A. – Sweatshop USA: The American Sweatshop in Historical and Global Perspective, p. 243 Gillespie, Nick – Poor Man’s Hero Article featured on the reason.com website. Retrieved on December 1, 2012 at: http://reason.com/archives/2003/12/01/poor-mans-hero