In Praise of the Opportunity to Sweat

You've seen the pictures: thousands of uniformed workers crammed in factories across Asia. You've heard the tales: long hours, low wages, unsafe conditions and appalling abuses. Stories about how sweatshops in far-flung developing countries exploit their employees abound.

Activists and organizations continue to pressure multinational corporations like Walmart to improve the conditions of the factories owned by their suppliers in China and elsewhere.

That's fine, but do sweatshops themselves really deserve to be so maligned?

A recent article in the Oregonian details some of the positive effects such factories have had in China, the world's manufacturing floor. It discusses how workers employed by sweatshops are returning to their villages and opening businesses. Not only is this a good thing for individual migrants -- it's also a benefit to the towns and villages where small businesses are now opening.

There's really no disputing that sweatshops provide paying jobs that wouldn't otherwise exist. The benefit of these jobs or lack there of should really only be looked at within the context of their location. In my native country, Ethiopia, a job that pays $2 a day is considered a good job. Would it matter if it meant working 16 hours a day in an unventilated garment factory? Not really. People would line up to take such positions -- if they were available.

A lot of social and economic justice activists have a hard time swallowing the idea that sweatshops can indeed be a good thing. That's too bad. For people living in developed countries, such working conditions might look terrible -- and they are. But in overwhelming majority of cases, they're actually better than the alternatives.

Leslie Chang, an American journalist who has spent time examining the lives of migrant workers in China, agrees.  "They're sleeping 12 in a dorm, and it looks like a pretty crappy life but you don't hear workers say, 'Oh, I have no hope, I'm a slave.' They say, 'I want to save some money. My dream is to be Bill Gates or to own a restaurant,'" she told the Oregonian.  Chang, author of Factory Girls: From Village to City in Changing China, points out that the U.S. followed similar patterns of economic development in the 19th century.

Let me be clear. I'm not defending factories that abuse their employees and routinely put their lives in danger. Obviously, there's absolutely no instance in which enslaving, beating and raping workers is acceptable. It's great that activists campaign against these practices, and there's no doubt their watchful presence makes a difference.

But companies that set up relatively safe workplaces should be encouraged, not berated -- even if the pay they offer is low and the hours long. I actually dream of the day when sweatshops finally arrive in Ethiopia. I know it will  mean we are getting somewhere.

Photo Credit: George Eastman House