The past ten years have seen a steady erosion of incomes and disappearance of job opportunities in the industrialized West.The impending bankruptcy of GM and Ford could be seen as the culmination of this process.Of course, in the service economy that process is now irreversible and many corporate giants, like Microsoft, TI, Cisco and others might very well relocate their operations to the hospitable shores of India.
While we have all dwelt on the pain of suffering of American families caught in these phenomena outside their control, another sequence of events may be unfolding which promises to democratize economic opportunities for the socalled Third World.If one took a long term view, we could even think of this as a hopeful sign of things to come.
For nearly sixty years after WWII, the economic paradigm has been that all goods and services were produced in the First World while the peoples of the Third World fought for scraps.Even the expectations of people in the Third World were minimal,the typical response being three square meals per day as the ultimate goal for most people.That has changed dramatically in the past ten years as India and China now fuel demand throughout Asia,a scene worthy of the beginning of industrialization of continental US.
Nothing symbolizes for me this transformation than the location of the transplants like Toyota, Nissan and Honda and the dispensation of jobs by these new powers in that key industry to offset losses at GM and Ford;and in another key segment, the rise of Mittal Steel swallowing up many steelmakers from Trinidad to Kazakhstan and now bidding to be the largest steelmakers the world has ever known.In these tales one senses the shifting of power away from the West and the rise of aspirations among the formerly destitute. I believe that even at the initial stages of this process, Americans and other Western peoples are benefiting while the Third World stands to gain enormous wealth in the next two decades.
If we have wise men at the helm, like Singh of India and Wen Jiao Bao of China, the resulting benefits for the world as a whole could dwarf anything that has preceded this century.The purchasing power unleashed by the growth in India and China can open up opportunities for many Americans and Europeans.The large numbers of skilled and educated people emerging out of India and China could bring our own bloated health care costs down and education could become less costly at the many fine universities in these two countries. As a father of seven children, I can attest to the pain of paying tuition and other expenses for my children at even our state supported institutions. And as a son caring for my elderly mother,the care one needs to provide for one’s parents has the potential of bankrupting us.
Decidedly, mine is a long term view.But I have chosen to become optimistic about the world’s prospects.The transformation, spearheaded by the global corporations has made mincemeat of our loyalties to nation states.The famous scene in the movie Network, where Howard Beale, the hapless anchor is given Lesson 101 by Jensen the CEO of CCA,is being reproduced over and over again.I am beginning to think that will become a common theme among our corporate bigwigs.They will no longer be bound by the loyalties to nation states.
My old prejudices against big corporations is slowly, steadily vanishing.They may be a source of hope to countless human beings on earth.
