# Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy **URL:** **By** Benjamin Powell, Matthew Feeney, Aaron Ross Powell **Published:** January 22, 2016 --- Benjamin Powell joins us this week to discuss the economics of sweatshops and the wages of workers in the third world. What qualifies as a sweatshop? Is there one standard definition? Why would someone choose to work in a sweatshop? What are their other alternatives? What happens when companies are made to pay their sweatshop workers more? Benjamin Powell discusses the economics of sweatshop labor. He argues that the anti-sweatshop movement's policies actually tend to harm the very workers they intend to help. **Show Notes and Further Reading** Powell's book [_Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy_](http://www.amazon.com/Out-Poverty-Sweatshops-Cambridge-Economics/dp/1107688930) (2014). Powell's Learn Liberty videos on sweatshops and immigration are well worth watching: - ["Sweatshop Wages and Third-World Workers: Are the Wages Worth the Sweat?"](https://www.libertarianism.org/videos/sweatshop-wages-third-world-workers-are-wages-worth-sweat) - ["The Unbelievable Truth about Sweatshops"](https://www.libertarianism.org/videos/unbelievable-truth-about-sweatshops) - ["Top Three Myths about Immigration"](https://www.libertarianism.org/videos/top-three-myths-about-immigration) - ["Economics of Immigration: Myths and Realities"](https://www.libertarianism.org/videos/economics-immigration-myths-realities)