MAY 1998 · VOLUME 19· NUMBER 3

The May 1998 Lawrence Summers Memorial Award honors a quote from the Chamber of Commerce in the early '90s -- the 1990s, not the 1890s as might be thought:

Child labor law violations are "an emotional issue that politicians have used to score easy points. And I might just point out that children may be better off in the sweatshops than on the streets selling drugs."

-- Pete Eide, manager of labor law for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, commenting on the 40,000 citations that were issued in the previous year against U.S. companies for violating child-labor laws (quoted in UAW Solidarity, January-February 1992).

*In a 1991 internal memorandum, then-World Bank economist and current Deputy Secretary of Treasury Lawrence Summers argued for the transfer of waste and dirty industries from industrialized to developing countries. "Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs (lesser developed countries)?" Summers wrote. "I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that. ... I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly under polluted; their air quality is vastly inefficiently low [sic] compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City." Summers later said the memo was meant to be ironic.