The last thing the West needs to do is to show more paternalism towards the third world, even though they caused some of the issues.

When people have more economic opportunities that are rooted in a solid reality, they acquire more of the only real power on this planet - economic power.

Reading the history of the working and middle classes in the West, it becomes clear that as they very gradually got more options over the centuries, they started building various edifices to cement that power. Unions, parties, laws, political traditions.

Next I would argue that human greed is not unique to us but is simply a form of price optimization. Corporations and consumers in the West, or planet Zog for that matter, will always want their sneakers manufactured for ten cents a pair if they can get it.

For that reason, sending these economic options to the third world is a very real and sustainable economic situation. Contrast that with artificial political solutions like regular aid packages (I’m not talking about disaster relief or aid for countries at war like Ukraine, I’m talking about funding some African country because they are poor).

Eventually, a situation similar to middle class life here in the West will develop there. Keep in mind this took centuries here even when the West owned the world.

Eventually, as the sweatshops move from country to country, they will run out of poor people to make sneakers for ten cents a pair. We’ll live in a world where everyone is too rich to accept that job. I want to live in that world asap, and the fastest way to get there is through free trade.