A Facebook friend who is in high school wrote,
Was just exposed to the most patronising, liberally biased video in class, which is being taught as fact. How is this allowed?
It was a 45 minute video about how we should feel bad for having more than third world countries and should therefore stop buying and producing things for ourselves until others have the same stuff as we do. I wasn't allowed to suggest alternatives. I was also told I was out of line for suggesting that perhaps this wasn't the best source we could have used.
To every student who faces this situation, and to every teacher who wants to consider alternatives, I have two recommendations.
First, read the famous Krugman piece about third-world labour, In Praise of Cheap Labour. It is a classic, very readable piece that points out how much better off workers are in the third world because we buy stuff that they manufacture.
Second, look for some Free to Choose videos by Milton Friedman. These are some of the best analyses, again at an accessible level, of policy formation that does and does not help poor people.