Late David Gordon (happened to be my econometrics professor) many radical economists documented/argued that MNC/TNC investment decisions are only partially based on labor cost considerations. Obviously, this in itself suggests nothing regarding the question of "generalized 'race to bottom'" phenomenon. I am doing some reading and preliminary investigation on the US economic well-being, provoked by a recent study at the Levy Institute (downloadable!). My initial sense is that there is a decline in economic well-being between 1989 and 2000, contrary to the Levy study.
I appreciate hearing other views on this Levy work if anyone already read it. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Doug Henwood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2003 4:25 PM > Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Cancun > > >> Devine, James wrote: >> >> > >Wages in the United States are higher than when NAFTA took effect, < >> > >> >but are they higher relative to labor productivity? >> >> That's not the issue. I was refuting the common notion that there's a >> generalized "race to the bottom." There isn't. >> >> Doug > > ================ > > It makes for great agitprop and when was the last time you heard of > outsourcing or setting up plant-equipment in another country [any country > to any country] to *raise* unit labor costs and *raise* real wages as a > historical norm? Surely Daimler [Mercedes] didn't put the plant in Alabama > to make workers there richer, that's just a consequence of their real > strategy. The example can be multiplied in hundreds of cases, no? > > Ian > >
