Reply to Hellmer on Sweatshops

Muetze Hellmer is a former student of mine at Loyola University New Orleans. The first draft of Hellmer (2005) started out as a term paper for a course she took with me. I am very proud of her for having an article she wrote while a mere undergraduate published in a prestigious scholarly journal such as The Journal of Libertarian Studies. While I gave her an “A” for her writing efforts,1 I attempted to convince her all throughout the writing process that lead up to this publication that she was in grave error in opposing imports from foreign sweatshops, as advocated by groups such as United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). I succeeded to the extent that Hellmer (2005) exhibits a rare understanding of the free market economic position, especially uncommon amongst those who do not have years of appreciation of the finer points of this philosophy under their belts.

Volume 22, Number 1 (2011)