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Benjamin Powell
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Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy (Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society)

by Benjamin Powell (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 43 ratings
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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.
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  1. ISBN-10
    1107688930
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1107688933
  3. Publisher
    Cambridge University Press
  4. Publication date
    March 10, 2014
  5. Part of series
    Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    5.99 x 0.5 x 9.02 inches
  8. Print length
    198 pages
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Out of Poverty (Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This eloquent book makes the compassionate case for sweatshops in poor countries as what poor workers voluntarily select as employers because they are better than the alternatives. It is uncommonly clear in this book that the economists' case for sweatshops is based on what's best for the workers, not what's best for efficiency or profits or First World consumers."
William Easterly, Co-Director of the Development Research Institute, New York University, and author of The White Man's Burden and The Elusive Quest for Growth

"Ben Powell has written a brilliant and thought-provoking book on sweatshops. He challenges a number of critical beliefs about them which, although springing from concern about the poor, lead to policies that will harm the poor. No policymakers, especially in aid and development agencies like USAID and UNDP, can afford to ignore this masterly book."
Jagdish Bhagwati, Columbia University, and author of In Defense of Globalization

"The term 'sweatshops' is a dirty word to students on American campuses and activists around the world, implying exploited workers toiling in horrible conditions for long hours at low pay. Powell's splendid new book gives us another perspective: how workers view sweatshops as an opportunity for improving their economic condition. Indeed, countless Americans, Japanese, and others enjoy their high standard of today living because their grandmothers and grandfathers worked in sweatshops a century ago."
Douglas Irwin, Dartmouth College, and author of Free Trade Under Fire

Book Description

This book explores how sweatshops provide the best opportunity to workers and the role they play in the process of development.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press (March 10, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 198 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1107688930
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1107688933
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.99 x 0.5 x 9.02 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 43 ratings

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Benjamin Powell

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4.4 out of 5 stars
43 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Cashew Son
    5.0 out of 5 stars Want to Help the World’s Poor? Allow Them a Way Out
    Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    If you care about global poverty and are open-minded, then this is a must read. The arguments make perfect sense and are backed by hard data, including surveys of the workers.

    Both sweatshop proponents and critics have the same end in mind – the raising of living standards, better working conditions, and a reduction in poverty. The difference is that critics generally operate on the surface level and favor short-term ‘solutions’ that feel good, but do more harm to the people they purport to help – and can even impede the economic progress of an entire country.

    As Powell points out, economic development is happening at a faster pace, meaning that it does not take as long for a country to see a dramatic increase in living standards as it once did – as long as the process is allowed to develop naturally. Artificial measures, such as regulations that set back economic freedom, do more harm than good. Eventually they would become superfluous anyway, as happened in the West.

    It does no good to pretend that proponents of sweatshops are evil people unconcerned with the welfare of workers. The reality is that they have simply thought deeper about the issue, know what works, and have the courage to say so.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Benjamin Cliff
    5.0 out of 5 stars This is an excellent book for people that are serious about helping those ...
    Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2014
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    This is an excellent book for people that are serious about helping those in 3rd world nations, and not merely feeling better about themselves. This seems harsh, but as someone that has worked with a non-profit this seems to be how many people make charity donation decisions.

    If economics is the dismal science this book gets to the heart of it: the limitation of natural and unnatural scarcity by conditions outside of our direct control. Empirical research into these areas exposes us to the rampant poverty they many are very conformable not knowing about. But realism is necessary to those that wish to make improvements to the world.

    The economic analysis is sharp and nuanced, it is not generalized. It does not overstate and say what can not be said without complete accuracy.

    This book is short and concise and could be beneficial to both to critics and advocates of free markets. It is careful to explain why and how things work even to the point of getting into the intrinsic ways markets work and coordinate.
    17 people found this helpful
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  • Gregory F. Rehmke
    5.0 out of 5 stars Sweatshops are an imperfect path out of poverty for the developing world.
    Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2014
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    Elizabeth Gaskell's "North and South" (both book and BBC miniseries) brings to life the challenges and opportunities of England's 19th century sweatshops. Ben Powell's Out of Poverty examines today's textile factories in the developing world and their role as a pathway out of poverty. Migrants from rural villages only gradually acquire skills valuable in modern factories. But as poor people learn how to work with textile and other light industry machinery, their earning power and wages rise. Critics of sweatshops wish there was a better, faster way, wish wages and working conditions could be better faster. Ben Powell is a critic of sweatshop critics, and he examines the many claimed shortcuts to prosperity that wishful thinkers say should be adopted (and mandated if not adopted voluntarily). These alleged shortcuts turn out to cause long delays. Ideally, the unskilled of the developing world could migrate to better-paying jobs. And ideally machinery and infrastructure could more quickly "migrate" to developing countries. Sweatshops are a compromise in today's imperfect world that lacks the freedom of movement and investment taken for granted in the decades before World War I.
    16 people found this helpful
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  • Rosolino Candela
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Assessment of the Role of Sweatshops for Alleviating Poverty in the Developing World!
    Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2014
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    Dr. Powell's book provides a concise, yet thorough, understanding of the role sweatshops play in alleviating poverty in the developing world. Grounded in basic economic theory, Powell analyzes how sweatshops provide the best available alternative for the poorest of the developing world. Although economics is the basis of analysis, Powell's defense of sweatshops is not justified not by economic efficiency or corporate profits. If the goal of economic growth is to alleviate the poverty of the poorest individuals in the worlds, sweatshops must be considered as one of the methods by which to achieve that goal. Attempts by individuals in developed countries to protest sweatshops, which are part of a broader process of economic development, has unintended consequences that harm the poorest people. Dr. Powell's masterful exposition of sweatshops as a means by which to improve the economic welfare of the Third World appeals not only to professional economists, sociologists, philosophers, and political scientists, but also to the interested layman as well!
    13 people found this helpful
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  • Rick
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for those concerned for the poor.
    Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2014
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    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.
    13 people found this helpful
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  • jj of jax
    3.0 out of 5 stars Freemarket Economics at its Best
    Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2016
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    An interesting read. I wanted to find something by professor Powell after seeing him on Stossel and I was not disappointed. This is a tremendous freemarket economics book.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Anna
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2014
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    Interesting book
    5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Emmet McNamee
    2.0 out of 5 stars Oversimplistic and hgihly ideological
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 16, 2020
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    This is a book which paints a very black and white picture of the role of sweatshops, the effects of activism and regulation and the prospects for progress. It relies heavily on basic theories underpinning neoliberalism and supply-side economics, which in Powell's world are ironclad inviolable rules.

    Powell's argument is simple: workers cannot earn more than the value of what they produce, and workers will choose the best option available to them. Those who campaign or criticise this are either economically illiterate activists or sneaky trade unions trying to stop jobs going to the Third World.

    Unfortunately Powell never goes beyond simple free market arguments and despite at various points distancing himself from the simplicity of homo economicus, he makes plenty of unrealistic assumptions about competitive markets, information asymmetries, bargaining power, etc. He fails to explore complexities of development nor the potential of multilateral coordination, instead taking easy aim at campaigns that target indivdual companies or sweatshops.

    There are undoubtedly concepts in this book that anti-sweatshop activists and others would benefit from learning, to ensure they appreciate the contexts and conditions within which sweatshops operate and avoid doing harm to the people they're trying to help. But I suspect they can find better and more thoughtful books out there on the subject than this one.
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