OK, one substantive post before I take off for the weekend.

Nick Kristof at the Times wrote a good one this week. Here’s the basic argument:

Mr. Obama and the Democrats who favor labor standards in trade agreements mean well, for they intend to fight back at oppressive sweatshops abroad. But while it shocks Americans to hear it, the central challenge in the poorest countries is not that sweatshops exploit too many people, but that they don’t exploit enough.

Talk to these families in the [garbage] dump, and a job in a sweatshop is a cherished dream, an escalator out of poverty, the kind of gauzy if probably unrealistic ambition that parents everywhere often have for their children.

In the past ten years, I have helped a whole lot of foreign companies set up shop over here in China. This doesn’t exactly win me a lot of friends among the Lefty crowd, folks that I agree with on most issues. No, I am an enabler of the seedy side of free trade, allowing multinationals to rape and pillage with abandon.

I have attempted to counter that argument on numerous occasions, bringing up examples of how my clients have gone into suburban and rural communities and brought jobs and a rise in the living standard. I have explained how these companies bring modern technology, some including safer and cleaner equipment.

There are also some "bad" companies out there, and because of them and the annual horror stories about factory conditions, my anecdotal evidence gets thrown out the window.

However, it is nice to know that a well-known and respected Lefty like Kristof, who is perhaps best known these days on his reporting of the situation in Darfur and other parts of Africa, is telling it straight and tying this issue into the real danger of increased protectionism in the U.S. A lot of this protectionism is about trying to save U.S. jobs, but there is also a substantial political movement on the U.S. Left whose objections rest on the issue of labor standards.

Kristof really nails my position on this, and although you should read his entire column, this sums it up for me:

I’m glad that many Americans are repulsed by the idea of importing products made by barely paid, barely legal workers in dangerous factories. Yet sweatshops are only a symptom of poverty, not a cause, and banning them closes off one route out of poverty. At a time of tremendous economic distress and protectionist pressures, there’s a special danger that tighter labor standards will be used as an excuse to curb trade.

When I defend sweatshops, people always ask me: But would you want to work in a sweatshop? No, of course not. But I would want even less to pull a rickshaw. In the hierarchy of jobs in poor countries, sweltering at a sewing machine isn’t the bottom.

My views on sweatshops are shaped by years living in East Asia, watching as living standards soared — including those in my wife’s ancestral village in southern China — because of sweatshop jobs.

I know, way too much on the topic of the government’s anti-online porn campaign recently. But hey, it’s a gift that keeps on giving. Any subject that covers government regulation, IT, law, and nudity — gosh, how could you not talk about it?

Actually, this is not a substantive post. My only concern at this point is that the authorities are being somewhat arbitrary in the wave of site shutdowns. What counts as lewd in China and what is acceptable?

This was driven home quite forcefully when I came across this distasteful "Peep Show" pic shamelessly posted on Shanghaiist. I had to cover the eyes of my cats so they wouldn’t see it. Well, just in the interests of full disclosure, here you go:

I mean really. How can you shut down other sites and allow something like that to continue? That’s just wrong.

Well, actually last week was longer, but even so, I’m exhausted. In addition to having too much work to do, there are a lot of deadlines coming up (before Spring Festival). Moreover, I am traveling next week and need to get stuff done between now and the end of Monday. That’s my way of explaining the sporadic posting of this week and the upcoming hiatus while I’m out of town.

On a positive note, I am pleased to recommend a new China blog for your consideration: Little Red Book. The link will take you to a post from today to give you an idea of the content, but I encourage everyone to take a look at recent stuff.

The short description is that the blog covers China advertising, and at the moment, this means LOTS of examples of interesting print, and I think some broadcast, ads. I also appreciate the annotations so I can tell who was responsible for that particular campaign.

I do a bit of media and entertainment law, including advertising and promotions, so this sort of thing interests me. We are always on the lookout for good examples, and the one I linked to obviously brings up interesting IP issues.

Anyway, congrats to Rand and his blog and, as I told him earlier today, I hope to see even more in-depth advert-related commentary in the future.