Organized labor was extremely problematic for capital since WW2.
The new dealers ( FDR, Truman ) gave organized labor tremendous power because without it the USA would probably have had a big communist party.
They also knew the deflationary period of the 1930s lead to the rise of fascism and nationalism in Europe. So the petty greed of capital was scarified at the altar to maintain peace. They were also willing to sacrifice growth to maintain peace.
We are going through a similar period of deflationary shock, so it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out and ends.
Most likely the source of unrest may not be US but China.
So all the money spent on mosquite coil, net , aerosol, skin cream ( while harming your own body ) was worth for nothing ? Nature had a better solution all along.
If we lived in forests mosquitoes won't be a problem, well at least all those activities increased GDP.
Putting supply chain in a single location reduces cost.
Most of it had little to do with China but decisions made by the US corporate sector.
Essentially the US Govt. cannibalized it's middle class to feed the electronic, military and
finance sector.
It's hard to deal with voters and labour unions, its much easier to deal with authoritarian regimes when you are a multinational.
Yanis V. has documented this dynamic of globalization quite well in his books.
> Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and India are becoming satellite hubs of manufacturing in Asia.
Why do you think US multi. nationals avoid India ? Given it's a parliamentary democracy and has a large english speaking population ? Why did they set up shops in China ?
In India you can have labour strike of 31 million people !
A 2 dollar / day earning India voter has more power over its government than a 30 dollar / day earning Chinese citizen.
They will move to Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand and continue their exploitation there but
will avoid India. This just shows how misinformed you are about Asia.
The key change in Asia has been China, who are setting up technology companies in other parts of Asia, including India ( often US stolen IP being shared ).
The main goal here is to get rid of the importance of dollar / yen swap lines. It has caused a lot of problems for trade between Asian countries.
My kids still need a lot of manual human labor to be educated ( services ).
You still need a lot of manual labor to create roads, bridges and apartments.
People were talking about flying cars 50 years ago, all those flying car investors must be billionares ?
On the ground things haven't progressed much, regardless of how much you would like to believe it.
Cape Town literally ran out of water !
If you mean automation for producing cheap plastic toys for Westerns ? If I was African why should I care about being exploited for white skinned consumers ?
China pulled a fast one, with selling cheap plastic goods to move up the value chain, steal technology and create Huawei.
African countries should do the same. If the US/EU imposes tariffs due to to currency devaluation. Africans should band together and only sell their natural resources in a new currency. Lets see how long the EU/US lasts when the most resource rich continent pulls a King Faisal.
> There's massive cultural, ethnic, and economic diversity. The continent spans countries which are middle income to the lowest in the world. Unity and cohesiveness are difficult regionally, less across the entire continent.
You could replace Africa with India / EU / China / US the same properties exist.
Who created the borders of African countries ?
Most African if asked the question.
"Are you African ?" would answer yes.
So please give African some credit ?
> Manufacturing, traditionally the ladder that countries climb to prosperity is being automated at an unprecedented rate.
Hold your smartphone right there. Most of this narrative is driven by media in the West to placate their population, so that they dont form labour union.
Travel anywhere in the world with the labour part of the supply chain. Most manufacturing still requires 100s of million of workers. You just cant see it in the West due to ships bringing it to them.
Humans are cheap - much more than robots. You can keep humans alive in the developing world for 100 dollars / months (its not starving wage for them ). For 100 dollars / month you are getting the most advanced robot any company can build.
Total factor productivity has been declining for a while, regardless of how much automation you bring to the table you cannot solve for human entropy ( death catches up with everyone eventually, even the most advanced human roboticist dies eventually or has to retire ).