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Another fallacious but frequently heard notion is that rights are a luxury good, in which poor people in developing countries themselves have little interest. However, examining human rights struggles in a number of poor Asian nations, Sen concludes: "To the extent that there has been any testing of the proposition that the poor Asians do not care about civil and political rights, the evidence is entirely against that claim." A further notion that is sometimes advanced is that just as the West's own economic development occurred through oppressive labor practices (the Industrial Revolution), it is unfair for the West not to let the developing world have its chance, as it were. Aside from the monumental empirical assumption that lack of protection of workers' rights accelerated rather than menaced the industrial development of the West, its moral implications are very troubling. These become especially evident if we apply the same structure of argument to genocide - the developing world must have its fair opportunity to try out genocide before it arrives at the solution of multicultural liberal democracy.
- Robert Howse, "The World Trade Organization and the Protection of Workers' Rights"
- Robert Howse, "The World Trade Organization and the Protection of Workers' Rights"
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