
In Praise of Cheap Labor: Bad jobs at bad wages are better than no jobs at all – Paul Krugman
28 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, Paul Krugman, sweatshops
Benjamin Powell, In Defense of “Sweatshops”
29 Nov 2014 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational regulation Tags: Ben Powell, development economics, do gooders, sweatshops
Should we simply outlaw the scourge of sweatshops and walk away in prim satisfaction?
12 Jun 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, labour economics Tags: Bill Allen, sweatshops

What is to happen to the erstwhile workers–commonly uneducated, poorly trained, illegally in a land foreign to them, with little experience and marketplace sophistication–who have had their livelihoods abolished? They had been surviving–even if meanly by civilized standards–in market competition by selling their limited services of low value at meager wages.
Taking away those miserable jobs, pricing them out of what had been their best option, does not magically provide them with better alternative employment. Reducing their already poor power to compete, leaving them more handicapped than before, is a strange way to help them.
Bill Allen


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