Societies in competition

As such social impacts demonstrate, the effects of sourcing decisions go far beyond their direct effect on the businesses that do it and their onshore workforces. For high-cost western societies, a clear question emerges: how can we possibly compete with third-world nations offering such massive wage arbitrage opportunities? Our economies and societies are simply not geared up for this.

The model response of western politicians can be summed up as ‘manufacturing bad, services good’. A natural corollary of ‘services good’ is to become more efficient and innovative in those services. The ability to do this is driven by technology and by the speed at which sustainable change can be achieved.