Post on 27-Dec-2015
Questions About Development
• Is wanting to “develop” natural,
universal?
• Does economic development lead other
kinds of development?
• Does better health care make
development a necessity?
• Does mass communication make
development a necessity?
More Questions
• Does more food?
• Does having more children?
• What about “tribes” that don’t know
about, don’t want?
• Where are your countries on World Bank
scale?
• Where are they on U.N. human
development scale?
• Is there a correlation?
How Does Development Happen?
• Exploitation of natural resources?
• Who benefits?
• Do local people share in profits?
• Who decides who benefits?
• Who adjudicates injustice?
• These are stories best told from the
bottom up.
• What do the “little” local people think?
Happening 2
• International trade, investment
• Why would capital come to a country?
• Resources? Labor? “Do-gooder?”
• Does capital help local people?
• Do local people decide how it’s spent?
• Do local people get a cut?
• How is injustice adjudicated?
• Do locals think they’re getting raw deal?
Happening 3
• Do technologies, communication
technologies affect development?
• How does technology interact with
labor?
• With natural resources?
• Do indigenous people have anything to
say about it?
• Can they say no? Do they want to?
The Value-Added Concept
• Value-add processes to make something
cheap worth more.
• Iron ore becomes iron, value added.
• Iron becomes a car, value added.
• Cheaper labor, more profit-value added.
• Concept of “import substitution.”
• Value-add is development?
• Is value-add a tradeoff for someone?
Cheap Labor as Value-Add
• Fire the American iron workers, hire the
Korean ironworkers.
• Cheaper iron, better value-add.
• What happens to the Americans?
• Fire the Koreans, hire the Chinese?
• Fire the Chinese, hire the Martians?
• Companies benefit; do workers?
• Do nations, in terms of development?
Corporate Responsibility
• Do companies have responsibilities
beyond profits, shareholders?
• What about laborers left behind?
• What about locals who don’t share in
profits?
• What about environmental and other
“externalities?”
• Who defines corporate responsibility?
Development=Protectionism?
• As developing nations add more value,
they compete with “developed” nations.
• Developed nations’ political systems
react with “buy American” type stuff.
• As developing resources are plundered,
Chavez types seize businesses.
• Are national governments screwing up
global development?
Government Roles
• Some “guide” development (China,
Singapore)
• Some undevelop (Sudan, Zimbabwe)
• Some nationalize everything (Bolivia,
Venezuela)
• Some let corporations run amok (U.S.A., much of Western Europe)
• Multinationals get leftovers—not
effective so far: $100 billion!