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Source link: http://archive.mises.org/1843/fair-trade-follies/
Fair-Trade Follies  April 13, 2004 by  The CSciMon runs an
inadvertantly hilarious article on what happens to an anti-
business business that becomes a consortium and eventually a big
business with high fees for fair-trade certification. By
adhering to dated ILO standards with a green twist, the
simpliest points seemed to have escaped these people. What if,
for example, a coffee plantation in a country with chronic
unemployment could employ more people at lower wages and fewer
benefits? Why is paying fewer people a higher wage necessarily
more just and fair? What if the workers themselves want to work
more than 48 hours per week, or take their remuneration in wages
rather than benefits? What if a coffee planation has to fire
many young teens in order to comply with FT standards (workers
must not be younger than 15 years old)? Or, most fundamentally,
what if the workers don’t want to p