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Friday, July 27, 2007
Ever thought of it this way?
Courtesy of O magazine: It'll surprise a lot of Americans to hear this, but in general buying cheap clothes from foreign factories actually helps the workers. True, there are problems with terrible facilities that use unsafe chemicals or lock the fire doors, but people in poor countries generally see factory jobs as better than many of the alternatives, such as peddling, farmwork, or day labor. East Asian has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty by developing a model of export factories.
Americans usually focus on the low wages and bad conditions -- workers earning 15 cents for making a shirt that will sell for $15. But for the person who makes that shirt, the alternative is usually a job that is more dangerous and pays less. I interviewed workers scavenging in a dump in Indonesia, and I'll never forget the mother who told me that she dreamed that her children would someday work in what we'd call a sweatshop.
Of course, if you want to pay more for a shirt that's produced by workers who get better treatment, terrific. But it's the poorest countries, where wages and working conditions are the worst, that most desperately need the jobs. And the most effect foreign aid is often to start a manufacturing industry in those countries.
