U.S. workers earning the minimum wage make only $10,300 working 50 weeks, 40 hours per week.nbsp; Under the Code, they would not be allowed to sew CU sweatshirts.nbsp;

Licensees must also comply with American laws like Title 29 CFR of the Federal Code of Regulations as enforced by the American Occupational Safety and Health Administration, American recommendations like the Threshold Limit Values of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists for chemical, biological, and physical agents, and American consensus standards for process, mechanical and building issues.nbsp; This type of regulatory regime is famously expensive.nbsp; OSHAs 1987 formaldehyde requirement forced employers to spend an estimated $72,000,000,000, in 1984 dollars, for every life saved.[5]

100 years ago the United States was a developing country.nbsp; Imposing WAAKE-UP regulations would likely have prevented it from ever becoming anything else.nbsp; In 1900, young men began work by 15.nbsp; According to the 1900 census, 25% of all male children over the age of 10 listed an occupation.[6]nbsp; Manufacturing workers worked eleven or twelve hour days, six days a week.[7]

As the employed labor force created wealth and capital, wages rose.nbsp; Higher wages, along with technological changes and an immense flow of immigrant labor, reduced the demand for child labor.nbsp; People could afford leisure time and began working fewer hours.nbsp; Safety and labor regulations that codified existing practices began to be enacted.[8]

WAAKE-UPs rules would have wiped out millions of jobs and prevented the capital that has made us rich from ever being accumulated.nbsp; They would have helped ensure that the demonstrators at the Hellems building would be living permanently in a real shanty town.

Poor people are poor because they lack enough productive work.nbsp; The WAAKE-UP code destroys productive work.nbsp; This, as a group of Honduran girls discovered when anti-sweatshop posturing caused Wal-Mart to cancel its contract for the Kathie Lee Gifford clothing line and cost them their jobs, cuts no ice with activists.nbsp; Unemployed Hondurans are far less important than raising the self-esteem of the wealthy Left and helping American unions protect their high cost jobs.[9]

Notes:
[1] UNITE, a supporter featured on the USAS web page, is a web site for the

[2] USAS Model Code as posted on the United Students Against Sweatshops web site on 13 April 2000.nbsp; http://www.umich.edu/~sole/usas/organizing/info/modelcode.pdf.

[3] United Students Against Sweatshops Model Code, http://www.umich.edu/~sole/usas/organizing/info/modelcode.pdf as of 13 April 2000.

[4]nbsp; Tables in the 1998 Statistical Abstract of the United States show that in 1995, median costs for rental housing were $612 per month or $7,344 per year.nbsp; The cost of operating a car (transportation) for 10,000 miles was $4,891.nbsp; The cost of feeding a family of four according to the thrifty plan was $4,584.nbsp; Family health insurance, which all activists assure us is essential for access to medical care, runs roughly $3,500 per year.nbsp; Put child care or schooling at about $2,000 a year.nbsp; Assume one child in school or day care and that clothing runs about $1,000 for a family familiar with Goodwill.nbsp; Throw in about one months rent for savings and round the total to $24,000.nbsp;