Gary Chaison, who teaches industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

NPR: Union Outsources Picket Lines to the Homeless

"Without the legally binding contract that the European retailers have signed, it's just putting lipstick on a pig, " said Bob Ross, a critic of sweatshops who teaches sociology at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

WSJ: Wal-Mart Announces Own Bangladesh Safety Plan

Keeping kids on cellphone or entertainment plans "is really a symbolic bond, the last vestige of parents' financial support of their kids, " says Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a psychology professor at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

WSJ: When Adult Kids Stay on Their Parents' Cellphone and Entertainment Accounts

"If you get a process of gentrification displacement and existing power bases are being eroded, it's not in the political interest to pursue it in the long term, " said Mark Davidson, an assistant professor of geography at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

WSJ: Old guard sees threat in youthful NJ urban influx