Reply #18: I certainly would not argue that corporations benefit from building

[pampango]

factories and service centers in the Third World, but it is not always at the expense of the local population. I have inlaws that work at a call center in Manila. To them it is a great job, paying twice what they can make elsewhere and with good working conditions. (It's even worth it to them to work at night rather than a standard day job.) The main reason wages are low in the Third World is that there are not enough jobs for way too many people. The old supply and demand problem.

We could, indeed, negotiate deals with other countries that include whatever requirements we wish. Of course, if we set their minimum wage, worker rights laws, and pollution regulations, they would have the right to negotiate concessions on our part as well. Of course, we have much more economic power than they do, so we could pretty much impose any conditions that we wanted to.

We would also have to police the laws that we encouraged their governments to enact, otherwise they would have no effect. How would we police the minimum wage law and worker rights laws in China or Bangladesh? Should we set the minimum wage in every country in the world? Should it be the same everywhere or different in China than it is in Mexico or Nigeria?