Poverty and Sweatshops

This column by Nick Kristof argues persuasively for manufacturing in poor countries even if the conditions are considered "sweatshops" in developed countries, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15kristof.html. It has been my experience from over 30 years working in developing and developed countries that a manufacturing facility in a developing country increases living standards and offers jobs that are desired by the local population.



Having planned and managed manufacturing facilities in over 25 countries including China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Taiwan, Poland, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, I do not feel that I have exploited people in poor countries. Nevertheless, some family members and others that I have discussed these experiences with, have felt that I taken advantage of poor persons in these developing countries. I am reading "Factory Girls" by Iris T. Chang which is an excellent non-fiction depiction of the lives of young women who "came out" from villages from the poorer provinces in China to the manufacturing centers in southern China such as Dongguan and Shenzhen. The working conditions described in "Factory Girls" are very familiar to me since I had the responsibility for a joint venture in Guangdong Province for the manufacture of printed circuit boards for AT&T in 1988. Young women from Sichuan, Hunan, and other rural provinces lived 8 to a room in the dorms and worked 10 hours per day six days a week for 50 weeks a year. Although I would not have wanted my daughters to have worked under such conditions, I was told through interpreters that most of them saw work in this factory as an opportunity to improve their own lives and those of the rest of their family. The working conditions in all of the other factories that I managed in China, India, and elsewhere were significantly better than the one in Guangdong Province, but a common message emanated from the vast majority of these experiences. People flocked to these factories as a means of improving their own standard of living and that of their families.



This past summer, I read "The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It" by Oxford Developmental Economist, Paul Collier. This is the best book that I have ever read about poverty. This book not only detailed the horror of poverty, but gave concrete causes and suggested remedies. Many of the points were counter-intuitive to me. Nevertheless. one key theme was that the poorest countries must develop a globally competitive manufacturing industry to bring individuals and societies out of poverty.