Race to the Bottom?

Abstract

Understood as "race to the bottom," globalization means transferring transnational companies' plants to locations with lower labor costs. The cases of job outsourcing to China & India & the differences between investing in vs outsourcing jobs to developing countries are discussed. The US labor movement has responded to this development by demanding protection against immigrants & imports, but this strategy is both divisive & ineffective: divisive because outsourced jobs do not feel oppressive to local workers, since the poor wages at those jobs still mean an increase in pay for them, & ineffective because the goal should be human development & empowerment of the many. The race to the bottom has spurred the anti-capitalism & anti-globalization movements into reframing a positive vision of international solidarity & social justice. M. Pflum