The Oregonian offers an interesting and informative look at increasing prosperity among workers in Chinese "sweatshops." HT: Steve Horwitz. Politicians and self-styled humanitarians have been trying to repeal the law of comparative advantage forever. They have been unsuccessful.

Here's the very important chapter 14 of Gregory Clark's excellent A Farewell to Alms. The entire chapter isn't part of the Google Books preview, but some of the key information is there. This passage sums it up:

"Marx and Engels, trumpeting their gloomy prognostications in The Communist Manifesto in 1848, could not have been more wrong about the fate of unskilled workers." (Gregory Clark, A Farewell to Alms, p. 272).