It seems like everyone is joining the sweat-free labor movement at my west coast campus. The momentum has noticeably picked up on the movement, and proper acknowledgements to the people who have made succeeded in bringing their cause to the forefront of people’s attention.

The underlying issue is tricky. I think most economists would probably lean against movements like these, citing issues like the decreased production incentives for companies which have a trickle-down effect on the local economies that are supposedly being raped.

They point to the past: before Phil Knight and Sam Walton came to a tiny village outside Shenzhen or Guadalajara, the people had no jobs and earned nothing. Now they work hard, have to put up with awful–borderline inhumane, in some instances–conditions, but they are making money and people are willing to wait in line in droves for these jobs. It’s simple supply and demand. Economists see people weighing factors and making decisions based on utility, and in this case, Cambodian workers feel like there is something to be gained from taking a job in awful conditions, so they decide it’s worth it for the money and they do it.

That argument is somewhat hard to justify when some corporations have significant profit margins. Why can’t they cut some of the profits to pay and treat their people better? American workers enjoy union privileges, standardized work environments, and so forth. Their counterparts in Indonesia are sitting in a tin shack with no lighting. The more the work conditions are described, the more it tugs at the heart. It’s an emotional appeal wrapped with a bow on top, it’s so easy to deliver. Yet the local workers often consider the Western companies are a godsend. Why?

There are people who understand this issue better, and I hope they could contribute their thoughts and inform us of the arguments and counter-arguments.

What about the people behind the movement?

The interesting thing is, last night I received an email from someone I know who is awfully “active”…she likes picking up causes. Maybe it’s because her family is so filthy rich that she feels guilty about it, who knows. The point is, it was a mass email updating students on what’s happening and encouraging them to participate in a sit-in, and the subject line contained “*ARRESTS LIKELY*”.

Hey join us; get arrested for free.99! Subsequent boasts to your friends not included.

A few hours later, as I was toiling away trying to meet deadline on two stories, someone sent another email over a list with the subject line: ELEVEN STUDENTS ARRESTED. They’re having a vigil for the sweatshop laborers and the students who, frankly, got themselves arrested.

Now I understand the feeling of wanting some street cred. 50 got shot 9 times and went platinum. The interlude from Harlem World, when the guy threatens Ma$e: “I aint scared of you, I been to jail and I wanna go back”. I had a dream about being jailed by the Chinese government for unfavorable expose journalism, and being interrogated and forced to swallow my New York Times press pass in a dank police bureau in Guangzhou, Cairo, Tehran, or Pyongyang. I ain’t gonna lie…I really hopes it goes down. Being kicked out of a country is the ultimate badge of honor for a foreign correspondent. “I wish you would,” as Ice liked to say.

But come on, anti-sweat-labor kids, don’t be so obvious! The hunger strike was a good move, it caused the president to cave in when you guys were sent to the hospital. Why not keep pressing on that front? Advertising your campaign by promising the chance to be arrested seems a bit questionable.

The origin of the email was a fellow I interviewed a while ago, one of the artistic types who is extremely long-winded, considers himself a social mover of sorts, and liked me because I cast his anti-war play as an “ambitious undertaking” in a news article I wrote. I was suggesting his work was a bit of all smoke and no substance that was out of his depth; he read it like I was praising him for daring to dream.

The person who forwarded the email, I later found out, had interned for Raytheon and was a Management Science and Engineering major. MS&E is the interdisciplinary brother of Econ here–it’s the major all the money grubbing hyper ambitious future CEOs pre-business kids join. It has “management science” in its name, honestly. This is the Raytheon, the “defense” contractor who got $5 billion along with Halliburton and Bechtel from the Pentagon, with tons of connections to the CIA. Bush Sr. was head of the CIA during the Ford administration, by the way.

So this kid from Raytheon sends out this email, and I know I’m mixing up my causes, but I’m here thinking: you feel that it’s unconscientious to pay workers in China very low but it’s OK to work for a company that makes weapons to blow up Iraqis? I’d be willing to shake hands with anyone from Exxon Mobil below the mid-level management, and I’d be willing to shake hands with anyone from Raytheon bar the execs–I don’t have a problem with people that work there, but as someone who has a choice of where to go as a student from a top college, you can’t choose to work for Raytheon and then pretend to be an activist liberal. I know I’m mixing up my causes but please, come on, think about it.

True, he didn’t organize the rally, he just forwarded it. But it just typifies the kind of bullshit that goes on.