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Ellen Ruppel Shell

Ellen Ruppel Shell - Ellen Ruppel Shell is a professor and science journalist who teaches at Boston University. She is the author most recently of Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. More

Atlantic contributing editor Ellen Ruppel Shell teaches at Boston University, where she co-directs the Graduate Program in Science Journalism. She writes on science, medicine, the media, economics, and sometimes even sports and the arts, and tends to focus on the underlying cultural and societal implications. She is the author most recently of Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture.
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Your Thoughts?

By Ellen Ruppel Shell

Aug 5 2009, 9:10 AM ET Comment

The formidable Megan McArdle and I have just begun our discussion of CHEAP on her site, and, not surprisingly, several of Megan's followers are outraged at the suggestion that predatory pricing has contributed to labor abuses and environmental devastation, in addition to doing serious damage to the bargaining power of Americans who work. (At least one of these critics has gone so far as to accuse me of being a "liberal arts" major!  Given my struggles with organic chemistry, perhaps I should have been.)  

Slurs aside, these angry folks subscribe to the "Sweatshops are A Dream" view of history, a view I do not share. 


What are your thoughts?

 



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