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Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society
Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy
This book provides a comprehensive defense of third-world sweatshops. It explains how these sweatshops provide the best available opportunity to workers and how they play an important role in the process of development that eventually leads to better wages and working conditions. Using economic theory, the author argues that much of what the anti-sweatshop movement has agitated for would actually harm the very workers they intend to help by creating less desirable alternatives and undermining the process of development. Nowhere does this book put "profits" or "economic efficiency" above people. Improving the welfare of poorer citizens of third world countries is the goal, and the book explores which methods best achieve that goal. Out of Poverty will help readers understand how activists and policy makers can help third world workers.
198 pages, Paperback
First published March 10, 2014
8 people are currently reading
290 people want to read
About the author
Benjamin Powell
117 books18 followersBenjamin Powell is the Director of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University and a Visiting Professor in the Rawls College of Business. He is the North American Editor of the Review of Austrian Economics, past President of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, and a senior fellow with the Independent Institute. He earned his B.S. in economics and finance from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University.
Professor Powell is the author of Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy (Cambridge University Press: 2014), editor of Making Poor Nations Rich: Entrepreneurship and the Process of Development (Stanford University Press: 2008) and co-editor of Housing America: Building Out of a Crisis (Transaction: 2009). He is author of more than 50 scholarly articles and policy studies. His primary fields of research are economic development, Austrian economics, and public choice. Dr. Powell's research findings have been reported in more than 100 popular press outlets including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. He also writes frequently for the popular press. His popular writing has appeared in the Investor's Business Daily, the Financial Times (London), the Christian Science Monitor, and many regional outlets. He has appeared on numerous radio and television shows including, CNN, MSNBC, Showtime, CNBC, and he was a regular guest commentator on Fox Business's Freedom Watch.
Professor Powell is the author of Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy (Cambridge University Press: 2014), editor of Making Poor Nations Rich: Entrepreneurship and the Process of Development (Stanford University Press: 2008) and co-editor of Housing America: Building Out of a Crisis (Transaction: 2009). He is author of more than 50 scholarly articles and policy studies. His primary fields of research are economic development, Austrian economics, and public choice. Dr. Powell's research findings have been reported in more than 100 popular press outlets including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. He also writes frequently for the popular press. His popular writing has appeared in the Investor's Business Daily, the Financial Times (London), the Christian Science Monitor, and many regional outlets. He has appeared on numerous radio and television shows including, CNN, MSNBC, Showtime, CNBC, and he was a regular guest commentator on Fox Business's Freedom Watch.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 20, 2021
2020-09-08 - Just noticed that this was on my list as "To Read" only. But I actually did read several chapters shortly after I bought the book from the author at FreedomFest in 2016(?). The book is fantastic. It lays out the case for why sweatshops help vastly more people than they "hurt." He deals with all the complaints against sweatshops and shows them to be really lame, when looked into with any rigor at all.
If you have any doubts about this issue, if you are squeamish at all about this aspect of capitalism, or if you hate capitalism because of this issue, I highly recommend this book. The logic and facts are unassailable - or at least will get you to think clearly about sweatshops:
- the laws governing them
- the companies that buy products from them
- the condition of workers in sweatshops vs. their real world alternatives
- who are the people and organizations pushing laws against sweatshops
- etc.
Reading this book could be one of the most liberating experiences ever. Truly.
If you have any doubts about this issue, if you are squeamish at all about this aspect of capitalism, or if you hate capitalism because of this issue, I highly recommend this book. The logic and facts are unassailable - or at least will get you to think clearly about sweatshops:
- the laws governing them
- the companies that buy products from them
- the condition of workers in sweatshops vs. their real world alternatives
- who are the people and organizations pushing laws against sweatshops
- etc.
Reading this book could be one of the most liberating experiences ever. Truly.
March 14, 2015
This is outstanding book about the misguided attempt by wealthy Westerners (most cynically, unions) to apply Western standards to 3rd-world "sweatshops" in order to assuage our guilt.
The book lays out clearly how boycotts, efforts to improve conditions (therefore raising production costs), etc, are counter-productive: how they result in reduced wages and/or lost jobs, and how the people who lose their jobs as a result do not find better ones...they simply find worse jobs that are "outside of the light" of Western supply chains, and thus not scrutinized - in agriculture, prostitution, rag-picking, etc.
I doubt my review will cause too many people to read the book, but I hope it does. The book lays out the stark reality of economic principles, and how they apply to sweatshops. Among the main points made are:
- That forcing higher costs in developing economies does not produce better outcomes for the people, and how a "sweatshop stage" has been integral to the development of all modern economies
- That many workers are upset when western people "help" them - because this help usually results in either lower wages (as more expenses go to improved conditions, health care, etc) or lost jobs (as they become uncompetitive)
- How we only seem to worry about workers who are producing goods "for us" - that overall poverty in the developing world (including what happens to workers who lose jobs) does not register as much
The book makes strong points that labor protection laws in the developed world were put in place, for the most part, *after* economic growth had already provided those protections as the norm. Most controversially for most, the book argues that even child labor laws are counterproductive. As a striking example, and as a result of US action (Senator Tom Harkin's proposal to ban imports from countries employing children), Bangladeshi firms laid off 50,000 children in 1993. As a result (an according to Oxfam), their next best alternative was not a pleasant day in school: it was prostitution, or starvation.
Note that the book focuses on voluntary transactions - cases where people choose to work in sweatshops because, although grim, these offer the best employment available. Coercion is not, and should not, be condoned.
The takeaway lesson, however uncomfortable, is that economics puts limits on utopias. Western activists would do better to focus on *adding choice* (for example, funding charities that pay children to stay in school, or paying extra to companies that explicitly offer to pay above-market rates to gain a brand advantage), rater than *reducing choice* (by direction action in boycotting or banning goods).
Great, great book - unbelievably thought-provoking.
The book lays out clearly how boycotts, efforts to improve conditions (therefore raising production costs), etc, are counter-productive: how they result in reduced wages and/or lost jobs, and how the people who lose their jobs as a result do not find better ones...they simply find worse jobs that are "outside of the light" of Western supply chains, and thus not scrutinized - in agriculture, prostitution, rag-picking, etc.
I doubt my review will cause too many people to read the book, but I hope it does. The book lays out the stark reality of economic principles, and how they apply to sweatshops. Among the main points made are:
- That forcing higher costs in developing economies does not produce better outcomes for the people, and how a "sweatshop stage" has been integral to the development of all modern economies
- That many workers are upset when western people "help" them - because this help usually results in either lower wages (as more expenses go to improved conditions, health care, etc) or lost jobs (as they become uncompetitive)
- How we only seem to worry about workers who are producing goods "for us" - that overall poverty in the developing world (including what happens to workers who lose jobs) does not register as much
The book makes strong points that labor protection laws in the developed world were put in place, for the most part, *after* economic growth had already provided those protections as the norm. Most controversially for most, the book argues that even child labor laws are counterproductive. As a striking example, and as a result of US action (Senator Tom Harkin's proposal to ban imports from countries employing children), Bangladeshi firms laid off 50,000 children in 1993. As a result (an according to Oxfam), their next best alternative was not a pleasant day in school: it was prostitution, or starvation.
Note that the book focuses on voluntary transactions - cases where people choose to work in sweatshops because, although grim, these offer the best employment available. Coercion is not, and should not, be condoned.
The takeaway lesson, however uncomfortable, is that economics puts limits on utopias. Western activists would do better to focus on *adding choice* (for example, funding charities that pay children to stay in school, or paying extra to companies that explicitly offer to pay above-market rates to gain a brand advantage), rater than *reducing choice* (by direction action in boycotting or banning goods).
Great, great book - unbelievably thought-provoking.
April 28, 2014
This book is a well argued and accessible critique of anti-sweatshop activists. It is devastating to the arguments of the economically ignorant calls to close sweatshops, but it isn't just cold economic reasoning. Nor does it require the reader to have training in economics to follow the arguments. The author is empathetic and holds his readers to high moral standards by anyone's reckoning.
This book takes seriously the intelligence and drive of the world's poor, rather than imposing an ugly and ineffective paternalism. It counters efforts to assuage western guilt (a normal good if there ever was one) with a call to common sense for the good of the world's poorest.
This book takes seriously the intelligence and drive of the world's poor, rather than imposing an ugly and ineffective paternalism. It counters efforts to assuage western guilt (a normal good if there ever was one) with a call to common sense for the good of the world's poorest.
February 6, 2015
Sweatshops rule! Okay, maybe not, but they might not be the evils they're made out to be. Interestingly, this is something that is agreed upon even by liberal economists like Krugman and Sachs. Rather than being something we should boycott and wag fingers at, we should understand they are the "first rung in the ladder" to prosperity. Anyone could learn from this book, but I'd especially like to get the thoughts of my friends on the left.
September 28, 2021
One of the most rancid reads I have ever had the displeasure of going through. The author defends modern indentured servitude. A disgusting human being wrote this awful "book".
June 8, 2023
I wish Benjamin Powell could have identified the problem at hand, capitalism. I am not saying his arguments within our global economy are invalid, but when you argue with "of course a multinational, multibillion company will try to keep wages low to maximize their profit" and call that ethical I think you should realise we have a problem within our global economy.
August 31, 2018
Excellent and provocative analysis of the economics and ethics of third-world sweatshops. Powell does everyone a great service by explaining the role sweatshops play in economic development and how they actually make their employees better off relative to their actual alternatives. Anyone who wishes to understand the important issues related to sweatshop employment must begin here.
June 24, 2020
Excellent read with some kryptonite econ
A book about economics and sweatshops that stays consistent with a priori intuition. Worthwhile read for anyone who understands: there is no such thing as macroeconomics, there is micro as the aggregation of micro; understand the plight of workers in sweatshops by understanding their competing alternatives.
A book about economics and sweatshops that stays consistent with a priori intuition. Worthwhile read for anyone who understands: there is no such thing as macroeconomics, there is micro as the aggregation of micro; understand the plight of workers in sweatshops by understanding their competing alternatives.
July 28, 2016
It was a great read and something I highly suggest for anyone interested in economics. Many people think that sweatshops are an evil institution that exemplifies the exploitation of workers abroad. Benjamin Powell lays out a convincing case that not only are sweatshops a "necessary evil" for the economic development of a country, but that they often times offer the best form of compensation available to the worker. His opinions are cited thoroughly with statistics and his arguments were very convincing.
Want to read
October 17, 2014
December 12, 2015
Solid argument but misses a few glaring counter arguments at the expense of the conceit that profit maximization is ipso facto unwavering.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews