Sunday, June 1, 2014

Invisible hand may soon favour Africa with a manufacturing economy!

Well finally, a spot of good news for the Dark Continent!

If the trends Alexis Akwagyiram highlights in this story at BBC continue, and as the world's storehouses of cheap labour grow pricier, Africa will have a competitive advantage; cheap labour!

That's another way of saying Africa is poised to win the race to the bottom because it has such a head-start!

Akwagyiram bemoans the fact that a mere 1.5% of global manufacturing output comes from Africa. Funny how he can have that discussion without ever referencing the last 500 years of colonial exploitation.

But that's all in the past, and happy days are just around the next corner. All that Africa has to do is undercut wages in China, Mexico, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Haiti, and anywhere else desperate people work for desperation wages, and viola!... the future will blossom with boundless opportunity!

Then, instead of being unemployed and living in abject poverty, more Africans will have the opportunity to work 80 hours a week in a filthy unsafe factory while continuing to live in abject poverty!

Just say NO to that model of development, my African brothers and sisters!

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