In short, sweatshops provide the least-bad option for the workers who work in them. But sweatshops are better than just the least-bad option. Sweatshops bring with them the proximate causes of economic development—capital, technology, and the opportunity to build human capital. If countries respect private property rights and economic freedoms, these proximate causes of development lead to higher productivity, which eventually leads to higher pay and better working conditions.Roberta Modugno writes on England’s Levellers, the first modern libertarian movement:
February’s issue also includes scholar and alumni notes plus the latest news from the Mises Institute including highlights from January’s Mises Circle and more on the latest translations, seminars and publications from the Mises Institute and Austrian school scholars.The first-ever libertarians were the Levellers, an English political movement active inthe seventeenth century. The Levellers contributed to the elaboration of the methodological and political paradigm of individualism, and they are at the origin of the radical strand of classical liberalism. While the Levellers are often characterized as a quasi-socialist movement, closer examination shows that the Levellers had much more in common with advocates for free markets than with socialists.