To the Editor:
Nicholas D. Kristof seems not to understand that the No. 1 reason for imposing higher labor standards on imports isn’t to improve living standards abroad but to maintain them here.
Americans shouldn’t be asked to compete with workers who think that toiling long hours under abysmal conditions is still better than living in the dump.
We should make every effort to eradicate poverty abroad, but not at the expense of creating it here.
Jeremy Weir Alderson
Hector, N.Y., Jan. 15, 2009
The writer is director of the “Homelessness Marathon” radio broadcast.
Note from KBJ: Free trade has been, and will continue to be, a disaster for American workers (and their families and communities).
