Taking a break from the primaries...

Our man Walter Williams takes a look at the silly sweat shop paranoia that's so popular in liberal circles these days.

Of particular interest in this piece is the observation that minimum wage laws imposed on impoverished nations do a lot more harm to the "exploited" work force than the act of hiring them at a rate lower than the average western worker could ever hope to. Of course, minimum wage laws have the same effect in America and everywhere else.

Again we see the alleged compassion of the left exposed for what it is: Socialists (unions in particular) protecting themselves from Capitalist competition. Setting up price and wage controls is great for the short term interests of western workers who already have jobs, and for the politicians who are looking to buy their votes. Unfortunately, this tactic always harms those whom it is purported to protect, the unemployed and impoverished citizens of the world, who would gladly take a low paying job over no job at all. It also has the backlash effect of slowing economic growth, as corporations struggle against artificially high labor costs. Of course, this leads to the coddled western workers getting laid off. Once this happens, the left will scream for MORE protectionism, which is exactly what caused the problem in the first place.