In: Economics
“Trade exploits a country and makes it worse off if its workers receive much lower wages than workers in other nations.” Please discuss.
Answer) Trade exploits a country and makes it worse off if its workers receive much lower wages than workers in other nations. This opinion is often reflected in emotional terms. For example, one correspondent compared the multimillion-dollar income of the chief executive officer of the clothing chain. The Gap with the low wages—often less than $1 an hour—paid to the Central American workers who manufacture some of its merchandise. It can seem hard-hearted to try to explain the terrifyingly low wages paid to many of the world’s workers. If one is asking about the desirability of free trade, nevertheless, the point is not to ask whether Low-wage workers deserve to be paid more but to ask whether they and their country are worse off exporting goods based on low remunerations than they would be if they denied entering into such belittling trade. one must also inquire, What is the choice. Foreign workers are paid much less than Home workers, and one could easily imagine a correspondent writing angrily about their exploitation. Yet if Foreign refused to let itself be “exploited” by denying to trade with Home (or by insisting on much higher wages in its export sector, which would have the similar effect), real wages would be even lower. We shouldn't refuse them the opportunity to export and trade might well be to indict them to even deeper poverty.