Debate on the Patents and Investment Editorials from the Ethical Society of Boston's monthly newsletter The Ethical Humanist. Every advance in the technology of transportation and communication has led to a corresponding expansion of the range and scope of commercial activity. As the sailing ship led to the East India companies, today's technology has led to Nestl and Microsoft. A recent article in the Boston Globe reports that U.S. health insurance claim information is now being processed in Ghana, in order to make use of Ghana's ample supply of low-wage workers. Idealized discussions of trade depict it as purely beneficial to all participants.
Reality is more complex.
Trade and financial transfer generate both benefits and injuries, which are unequally distributed among those affected. In general, benefits accrue to those who are in positions of power and who make the significant decisions, while injuries are sustained by those who don't have enough power to resist successfully. For example, when data processing jobs are exported from the first to the third world, those who formerly did this work have their living standards reduced, often below the poverty level, while the newly employed workers live at an even lower living standard. If they didn't, it wouldn't be profitable to move the jobs. The benefits are the lower costs of doing business, which are purportedly passed on as lower prices to customers in the first world.