Episode 118: Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy (with Benjamin Powell)
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Benjamin Powell joins us this week to talk about his book on the economics of sweatshops. Why would someone choose to work in a sweatshop? What are their other alternatives? What qualifies as a sweatshop? Is there one standard definition? What happens when companies are made to pay their sweatshop workers more? Benjamin Powell discusses the economics of sweatshop labor. He argues that the anti-sweatshop movement’s policies actually tend to harm the very workers they intend to help. Show Notes and Further Reading Powell’s book Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy (2014). http://www.amazon.com/Out-Poverty-Sweatshops-Cambridge-Economics/dp/1107688930 Powell’s Learn Liberty videos on sweatshops and immigration are well worth watching: “Sweatshop Wages and Third-World Workers: Are the Wages Worth the Sweat?” http://www.libertarianism.org/media/around-web/sweatshop-wages-third-world-workers-are-wages-worth-sweat “The Unbelievable Truth about Sweatshops” http://www.libertarianism.org/media/around-web/unbelievable-truth-about-sweatshops “Top Three Myths about Immigration” http://www.libertarianism.org/media/around-web/top-three-myths-about-immigration “Economics of Immigration: Myths and Realities” http://www.libertarianism.org/media/around-web/economics-immigration-myths-realities Download the .mp3 of this podcast: http://bit.ly/1P852oK Subscribe in iTunes: https://bitly.com/18wswtX
Comments
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On the one hand Professor Powell praises the increases in industrial output per factory worker in the United States as an example of increased productivity in action, and is somewhat dismissive of former factory workers who are put out of work by this process, but on the other hand he maintains that if you raise the cost of labor in very poor countries, you make substitutes like capital relatively cheaper and would be putting people out of work. I guess my question is, why is it a good thing that we're able to produce more stuff in the United States with fewer laborers and more capital, but a bad thing that more stringent workplace safety regulations and the like would throw some workers out of their jobs in places like Bangladesh? Is it simply that the Bangladeshi's next best option is so much worse than the laid off American industrial worker?
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