LETTERS: Wednesday, February 16, 2000

More questions than answers More questions than answersTo the Editor: Is the overall goal, though, to help people in the sweatshops or is it to ease the conscience of the Penn students? Intuitively, it is difficult to see how higher standards could hurt the foreign workers. Nevertheless, as the unemployment caused by raising the minimum wage illustrates, good intentions without rigorous analysis can lead to detrimental consequences. Why are companies building factories in Third World countries? Corruption, political volatility and crime present major obstacles to business. One reason is the countries enjoy a comparative advantage in the form of cheap labor. The people are willing to work for the low wage that American firms provide because their alternatives are even worse. If companies were forced to pay higher wages and have better conditions, why would they locate in countries with high risks, poor infrastructure and little education? In the forum on sweatshops last year, a graduate student studying Bangladeshi textile workers said they wished that conditions were better, but at the same time they valued their jobs. They were afraid of movements to raise wages because they thought the companies would leave. If the regulations proceed as planned, it seems to me that we would be taking away jobs from the people who need them most. Should we stand by and let these violations of human rights and basic decency go unfettered? Sadly, there may be little we can do right now. Hopefully, with good economic policies and the exploitation of comparative advantage, these countries can follow in the steps of the Asian tigers and raise their standard of living. I certainly do not have the answers. I am saying that I have not heard convincing economic analysis that demonstrates that what we are doing will really ameliorate the situation for the workers. I think that many protesters from Seattle to Penn's campus would find that it is often wiser to draw supply and demand curves before slogans and posters. Joe Mazor College/Wharton '02 To the Editor: A rape allegation is an extremely serious one to make, and it appalled me that the article on Delta Tau Delta's current lawsuit ("Delta Tau Delta fraternity faces serious allegations," The Daily Pennsylvanian, 2/14/00), chose to treat it with such little respect. This information, however, was buried on the second page of the article that many students probably did not read. Such sensational storytelling was completely out of line. The current brothers of Delta Tau Delta are respectable people who do not need to have their fraternity's name unjustly slung through the mud so that your headlines can be interesting. Placing the rape allegation right below your headline is just the sort of tabloid journalism that your newspaper should be above. Sujata Gosalia College/Wharton '00

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