As the industrial revolution spreads through China and India, there are good reasons to think that Asia will continue to pick up speed. The sweatshops have helped lay the groundwork for a historic economic realignment that is putting Asia back on its feet. With just one mosquito net, she had to choose which children would sleep protected and which would sleep exposed. If there had been a sweatshop in the area, however harsh or dangerous, Nhem Yen would have leapt at the chance to work in it, to earn enough to buy a net big enough to cover all her children. For all the misery they can engender, sweatshops at least offer a precarious escape from the poverty that is the developing world's greatest problem.
Today there can be no doubt about which approach worked better.
The effect of American pressure on sweatshops is complicated. While it clearly improves conditions at factories that produce branded merchandise for companies like Nike, it also raises labor costs across the board. That encourages less well established companies to mechanize and to reduce the number of employees needed. The upshot is to help people who currently have jobs in Nike plants but to risk jobs for others. Sweatshop monitors do have a useful role.