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 Originally Posted by wufwugy
Sweatshops, pre-union meat-packing, slavery.
Sweatshops are a positive relative effect on the lives of sweatshop workers. In the absolute they are terrible, but they reflect the level of scarcity and desperation in the poorest countries and distribute that scarcity in the most favorable and equitable way. Sweatshop workers would be starving in the streets if it weren't for sweatshops.
Similar for pre-union meatpacking. In spite of the terrible conditions that industrial revolution era British factory workers endured, their standards of living compared quite favorably to those working in agriculture (the alternative).
I'm not prepared to debate the slavery issue. In my opinion a truly free market is not compatible with slavery. The places in the world that have/had slavery are/were far from free markets. I think in a society where wages are price-coordinated, business would much prefer to pay wages based on supply and demand than buy and enslave human beings.
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