Globalisation and Labour

Why is that the manufacturing industry keeps suffering in the UK and Europe? It’s not government engineered but a fact of globalisation. Labour across the globe has to align to make countries competitive. We have no god given right to a higher standard of living than Africans, Chinese or Indians. The companies we invest in go where the resources are and where manufacturing costs are competitive. Putting up trade barriers or labour barriers only makes countries less competitive in being able to trade with others. If your mate can’t get a good wage here then the answer may be doing what our immigrants have done – move to where labour is well paid and where his skills are in short supply such as the emerging markets and the Middle East. It’s been going on for hundreds of years, the ambitious are flexible and improve their standards of living. Those resisting change get poorer. You’ve got to be flexible and go where the demand is.