FEBRUARY 10, 2012
\nby William Mitchell \u201914, Contributing Writer<\/p>\n
\u201cBad jobs at bad wages are better than no jobs at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a controversial statement from a controversial speaker, but Benjamin Powell is used to shocking people. An assistant professor of economics at Suffolk University, Powell spoke at a Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow event Tuesday titled \u201cIn Defense of Sweatshops.\u201d<\/p>\n
A specialist in\u00a0development and public choice economics, Powell claimed that for people in developing countries, jobs in sweatshops are far better than the alternatives. The most common alternatives to sweatshop labor in many of these countries are substance agriculture and destitute poverty.<\/p>\n
Powell noted that these alternatives could be especially damaging to children. Children forced out of the manufacturing sector put in long hours in fields in the sun or, in worse cases, turn to\u00a0prostitution. Powell claimed that until incomes as a whole rise, child labor will\u00a0persist with or without the presence of sweatshops.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this idea that once child labor is outlawed that they get to go to Western schools, but that\u2019s not the case. They just move to another sector of the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Powell claimed that in reality there is little the\u00a0government could do to increase worker\u2019s wages. If a minimum wage is enforced, then the factories could\u00a0no longer turn a profit and would close. This would\u00a0condemn\u00a0the workers again to subsistence agriculture and destitute poverty.<\/p>\n
Enforcing better working conditions could have equally damaging effects. When employers are forced to improve\u00a0working conditions they lower wages to compensate for the cost.\u00a0Lower wages mean workers can purchase fewer goods, dampening economic growth.<\/p>\n
Powell ultimately claimed that if people really want to help people\u00a0working in sweatshops, they should step up their efforts to purchase products from sweatshops. As demand increased, workers would also be in greater demand and wages would rise.<\/p>\n
The role for Western countries in this would be to engage in ethical branding, in which\u00a0purchasing from low wage manufacturing could become \u201ccool.\u201d Powell, however, soon qualified this claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s things people can do, but it\u2019s market-oriented and ultimately a small niche.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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