ctured goods have kept consumer prices low, and with increased disposable income, other US firms have benefitted. But, the benefits have been unequally distributed. Furthermore, the US has been able to specialise in different sectors, such as finance. This has benefitted educated workers, who can gain good jobs in the service sector.
This shows that exports are a smaller percentage of the US economy. Part of this is due to the size of the US, there is more intra-US trade. While the Euro area has seen a rapid growth in exports due to Single Market.
- Sometimes globalisation is a ‘catch all’ issue blamed for all an economies problems. In reality, manufacturing sectors may still have declined – even with less globalisation.
- Globalisation is also quite a vague concept and it is not something new.
- It is worth considering ideas such as Schumpeter’s Creative destruction of Capitalism. Also, it is worth considering the “Luddite Fallacy“
- A big issue is not globalisation per se, but how we manage the impact of globalisation. It is possible that globalisation can play a key role in improving living standards for the poor, but left to market forces, it is no guarantee.
- There is a tendency to simplify the debate, e.g. in US manufacturing sector decline, finance has done relatively well. However, some US manufacturing firms are still very globally competitive, though the manufacturing process is now more global with different stages of production delegated to different economies.