For the last three decades, it’s been more or less assumed that globalization was a force that moved in only one direction — towards ever-greater integration.
And due to the logic of global trade, the assumption of ever greater integration led to the prediction that manufacturing would continue to move from countries with low labor costs to those with even lower labor costs and even looser laws, while supply chains would tend to grow ever-longer and more complex. The world would grow flatter.
So far, these predictions have held true, but will they always? For the first time in recent decades, it seems there are now real reasons to question the logic underlying the official future of ever-increasing global trade.
Read more at Worldchanging.com…
Hong Kong Harbour, viewed from Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Photo by shinyai.
