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It's important to be clear on what's going on here. First of all, libertarians aren't saying that low wages are good. They are not saying that poor working conditions are good. They are saying that no one has a right to any particular job at any particular wage. And they are saying that certain ways of raising wages or improving working conditions are not acceptable because they violate individual rights.

If I need some help cleaning my garage and I offer you $1.00/hour, you can take it or leave it. You'll probably leave it, and that's fine. The point is that you don't have a right to be paid $5.00/hour to clean my garage and I don't have a right to have you clean it at $1.00/hour.

The important things to keep in mind when we consider the low wages in third world countries are these:

• No coercion or threat of coercion is involved (by hypothesis)
• People do not have a right to any particular job or wage from any private party.
• People have a right to choose to work at whatever wages they find acceptable. If they choose to work for a wage we consider quite low, it is because they have weighed the alternatives and made that choice. To deny them the right to make such a decision is not only an interference with their freedom, it's patronizing.

Having said that, let me go back to what I said about poor working conditions not being good. Libertarians are not saying that we shouldn't do anything to improve working conditions or wages. They are not saying that we shouldn't do anything to change the conditions that lead people to accept low wages to begin with. It may be good, for example, to encourage solid basic education. But that's a different issue.