The sophistry in Krugman's argument is that he relies on a universal premise
of rational utility maximization in order to "demonstrate" the irrationality
of some particulars. All swans are white . . . therefore, those black swans
over there are not swans. Obviously it takes a great deal of skill to
perform such a feat but it also takes the indulgence of an audience that
would rather watch and believe -- or watch and *disbelieve* -- such a
performance than attend to the annoying question of what time it is.
Sweatshops are a phenomenon of decay, pure and simple. They spring up like
mushrooms in the crevices of a putrifying social formation. Sweatshop labour
is a middleman operation heavily subsidized by state repression and
uncompensated expropriation of population health. Wages are low not because
of productivity but because of the legions of brokers, sub-contractors,
petty officials and toad swallowers that have to be maintained to stoke the
furnace with cheap labour. The middlemen are not cheap.
Think of it this way: the difference between the price of an item produced
by sweatshop labour and the cost of the labour that went into it is not all
gravy for the capitalist. Some part of it went to feather the beds of
so-called economists and columnists who churn out hoary tales about what a
cracking good deal it all is.
Tom Walker
Bowen Island, BC
604 947 2213
