The hunt for cheap labor no longer requires armies as it did during colonial times. That's all taken care of by the misery that most of the planet suffers. And when an economy anywhere on the planet catches a cold, economies around the world sneeze. At the end of 1997, a currency devaluation in Malaysia killed thousands of jobs in the shoe industry in southern Brazil. Poor countries have put their hearts, souls, and sombreros into a global good-behavior contest to see who can offer the barest of barebones wages and the most freedom to poison the environment.
Countries compete furiously to seduce the big multinational companies.
What's best for companies is what's worst for wage levels, working conditions, and the well-being of people and of nature. Throughout the world, workers' rights are in a race to the bottom, while the pool of available labor grows as never before, even in the worst of times. Globalization has winners and losers, warns a United Nations report. A rising tide of wealth is supposed to lift all boats, but some are more seaworthy than others. The yachts and ocean liners are rising in response to new opportunities, but many rafts and rowboats are taking on water-and some are sinking.