ABSTRACT
Over the last decade, more and more proponents of ‘sweatshop economics’ have made the topic an important emerging discourse in the field of economics. Benjamin Powell’s Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy has been perhaps the most prominent manifesto in support of sweatshop economics. Powell and other proponents are attempting to bridge the gap between markets and morals by offering a new brand of ‘market morality’ that would acknowledge the importance of ethical norms in market processes. Sweatshop economists such as Powell are not justifying their support of sweatshops based on claims of economic efficiency alone. They claim that their economic argument is a moral argument. This chapter explores and challenges this brand of market morality. It argues against both the conservative, free-market approach of economists such as Benjamin Powell and Matt Zwolinski and the vision of more liberal thinkers like Nicholas Kristoff and Paul Krugman, who defend sweatshops as ladders out of chronic poverty.
