Humanitarians for Sweatshops

I just read a great article about sweatshops from the liberal Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Nicholas Kristof.  Humanitarians generally believe that sweatshops are deplorable places and that Americans should boycott companies whose products are manufactured in sweatshops.  The truth is, that by American standards, sweatshops are in many cases downright deplorable.  But in actuality the working conditions and pay in a third-world country sweatshop are far better than in alternative lines of available work - agriculture, crime, prostitution, etc.  Sweatshop jobs are in high-demand and are a way out of poverty for much of the world’s poor.  As sweatshops become more productive, wages increase and conditions improve.  As wages increase, workers have more disposable income and access to better education.  As incomes and education increase, workers gain access to better jobs, and the process goes on.  It may take generation or two, but countries like South Korea and Taiwan that opened their labor markets early on are now considerably farther ahead economically than countries like China and India, which did so much later.  So, ironically, the best way to improve working conditions at sweatshops, is to buy more stuff produced in sweatshops.