It's true that the fact your clothes are made by some people earning a dollar a day in Mexico means that they earn a dollar a day more than they would otherwise, but that argument is in its own way just as simplistic as the "globalization is bad!" argument. For one, the kind of argument Krugman is making seems to imply that avoiding sweatshop-made products would mean taking jobs away from people who depend on them as an alternative to something even worse.

This isn't true. Most fair-trade products are manufactured or grown in the same Third World countries where sweatshops exist. Farmers and factory workers who are employed by or sell to fair-trade brands get a decent wage and decent treatment, and while the fruits of their labor may cost a bit more for us First World people, they are usually of better quality than conventional stuff.

Chocolate is a good example, although it's not made in a sweatshop per se. A lot of the world's coca is grown either by small farmers who are paid a pittance or on large plantations that use child slave labor. To be fair, many conventional chocolate companies in the World Cocoa Federation are trying to improve this situation. Fair trade chocolate is either bought from independent farmers at a decent price, or a lot of the money goes into providing them with schools, sanitation, medical care, etc.

One particular brand of chocolate is both grown and made in Peru (most fair-trade chocolate is made in the U.S. from imported cocoa). The Peruvian chocolate factory workers actually own shares in the factory, they get paid and treated well, and they make darn good chocolate that only costs a bit more than the regular kind.

It's good that globalization can improve the lives of people in impoverished countries, but if they are paid bare-minimum wages and work in bad conditions, those of us who get the things they make still get most of the benefits, while they bear the worst of the costs. That's not the only alternative to absolute poverty for them. Fair trade products show that we can do better for the people who make our stuff, and we will get good things out of it too.

If you are interested in seeing a well-researched alternative narrative to Mr. Krugman's, take a look at The Story of Stuff.