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Killer Compassion – Part One (Sweat Shops)

By Pat Pending

We Americans are very compassionate people.  We feel compassion for those who are struggling to make ends meet, for single parents trying to raise children alone, for children who are abused or neglected, for people who are destroying their lives with drugs, for people who are poorly educated, for people with various disabilities, and so forth.  We want to take up the side of the underdogs, the Davids against the Goliaths.  Our compassion and concern for others is an important part of our humanity, and we feel good about ourselves when we think we are helping those who are less fortunate.  The tragedy is that, when we allow ourselves to be controlled by those “feel good” emotions, and ignore hard, cold logic and common sense, we often end up pursuing a course of action that results in doing serious harm to the very people we want to help.  If we really care about the underdog, we cannot just take actions on the basis that they make us feel good.  We must educate ourselves to understand the reality of these people’s lives.  We also must act within a legal framework in which all people are treated with respect.  Only then can we be reasonably sure that we are actually “doing good”, not just “feeling good” at someone else’s expense. 

When we consider other people’s lives, we usually try to put ourselves in their shoes.  How would we feel if we were in that situation?  The trouble is that they are not us.  They are somebody else, living in an entirely different situation from ours.    

Example #1:  Sweat Shops

Many caring and compassionate people deplore the “sweat shops” in which many people in third world countries work.  They can’t imagine themselves working under such unpleasant conditions for such low wages, and they feel sorry for the people who work under those conditions.  So, they protest against the companies that use “sweat shop” labor.  These protests make them feel good about themselves, but are they really helping the poor people working in the sweat shops? 

Let’s remove ourselves and our feelings from the picture and consider the situation from the sweat shop worker’s point of view.  If that worker had a better alternative, he would not be working in the sweat shop.  The reason he or she takes the job in the sweat shop is that it is the best job available.  He may not be thrilled with the working conditions or the pay, but it sure beats living in the garbage dump.  She may not enjoy sitting at a sewing machine for ten hours a day, but she no longer has to leave her children in the village with her mother in order to work as a maid in the city, seeing her family only one day each month and barely earning enough money to feed them.  Instead, she now is able to be with her children in the evenings after working in the “sweat shop” and now can afford to feed them a healthier diet and even to buy them medicine when they are sick.  The sweat shop jobs have meant a real improvement in the lives of these workers, their families, and others in their villages.  If the protesters succeed in closing down the “sweat shops”, these workers will be left with options that are far less attractive.     

So, if the “compassionate” American protesters are actually successful in their efforts, their success will greatly increase the misery of these poor people. Of course, the protesters don’t think this far down the road.  In fact, they don’t actually “think” at all!  They just want to “feel good” about themselves!

If we operate from the desire to “feel good” rather than from rational thought, we are easily manipulated by others.  In this case, Americans, who really are motivated by a desire to eliminate competition from workers in third world countries, can raise the issue of “sweat shops” and pretend to be righteous and compassionate toward those workers in third world countries, as they lead the protests that will cost those poor workers their jobs. Of course, some people would rationally choose to trade off the life of a child in a third-world country, whom they do not know, in order to protect the standard of living of a local person they do know, but, if they are going to make such a trade-off, at least they should do it with their eyes wide open and should not be misled into feeling good about helping the child whom they actually are harming.

So how are we to know what to do?  How can we avoid being misled by our emotions?  First, if we really care about other people, we operate within a framework that will treat them with respect.  We will respect their right to make their own decisions for themselves and their families, to control their own property, and to enter into contracts that they think will benefit them. 

Maybe, instead of protesting against the companies that are providing the best opportunities for these poor workers, we will begin to educate ourselves about what it takes to convert a third world country into a country in which the average working people can prosper.  If we do, we will learn that a legal system that respects and protects private property and freedom of contract is essential to creating an environment in which poor people can prosper, because only where property is respected will people be willing to make long-term investments that will make workers more productive.   Maybe we will stage protests against the corrupt government in that country that keeps its people in poverty and limits their opportunities while pretending to be protecting them.  Maybe we will contribute our time or money to a group that is offering educational opportunities to those workers, so they will be able to acquire skills that will improve their ability to earn a living.  If we are successful, the country’s legal system will begin to respect private property.  Investors will come into the country and invest in factories and equipment that will make the people more productive and more prosperous, and the sweat shop workers gradually will leave the sweat shops for better opportunities.  It might not give us a quick “feel good” rush, but it should give us a lot of quiet satisfaction that we actually have done something beneficial rather than stroking our own egos at someone else’s expense.

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