The series looks to have a lot of interesting information, but a lack of understanding of important economic principles leads the author to believe that the res

The series looks to have a lot of interesting information, but a lack of understanding of important economic principles leads the author to believe that the result is much worse than reality. It is absolutely true that our globally connected infrastructure allows supply chains to explicitly take advantage of the fact that there are places where people are willing to work in sweatshops. And this results in creating more sweatshops. BUT, as is documented in Pinker's _Enlightenment Now_ and elsewhere, this is officially a Good Thing. The reason why people are willing to work in those sweatshops is that it beats spending your day bent over in a rice paddy and praying that you'll grow enough not to starve. And once there is a sufficient supply of people with the skills to work in a factory, a better class of sweatshops move in, and pay higher wages. This eventually forces the bad sweatshops to find a new place where people are still desperate to move in to. The result is that the Industrial Revolution is not done. Its leading edge is textile sweatshops. They move in, and improve life. And when they do, it is a signal that life is about to get better for everyone. And when it gets good enough, they move out. To give a sense of scale, in recent decades, we've averaged that 250,000 people PER DAY come out of extreme poverty. Historically extreme poverty was the norm for over 90% of the human race. And today we are looking at ending it entirely within our lives. Then we'll have to face a change in dynamic. Once there is no place where a sweatshop is an improvement over existing life, the textile industry will have to reform. But for now, they are the first rung on the ladder to prosperity. And a system that makes it more efficient to offer that rung to those who are still desperate is helping create a future with prosperity for all.