Sweat Dreams

Nicholas Kristof publishes an excellent article praising the anti-poverty work of sweatshops in the third world. To people whose alternatives include picking over trash and starving to death on sub-subsistence farms, a sweatshop is, he writes, a cherished dream, an escalator out of poverty, [a] gauzy if probably unrealistic ambition...

Closing down sweatshops would hurt the poor more than anyone else. Kristof suggests promoting African imports; other worthwhile initiatives are those that crack down on corruption, extend agricultural knowledge, and promote learning.