I guess I really know nothing about economics... Sincere question: how does paying less for functionally/fashionably equivalent products hurt the economy of the country that's consuming them?
The same detrimental effects can happen with lots of aid given to Africa. Basically, the majority of Africa is clothed with first world hand-me-downs. The result is that there is virtually no market for home-grown clothing makers in Africa.
Think about it, the US has "anti-dumping" laws to protect US manufacturers, but we "dump" into other countries all the time in the form of "aid".
Are you really complaining about too much aid being given to a continent mostly stricken with extreme poverty?
I think the African people have more to worry about than supporting local clothing makers. The fact that they can be clothed cheaply allows them to concentrate on other problems they are facing.
> Are you really complaining about too much aid being given to a continent mostly stricken with extreme poverty?
Yes, absolutely, and there is plenty of evidence that a lot of this aid keeps Africa in extreme poverty.
This is not an extreme, or at this point even a particularly unusual, viewpoint. Some other sources that argue, convincingly in my opinion, why much of the aid given to Africa over the past 50 years has been counterproductive:
https://youtu.be/Jv4cAVzC8xM - good video about a Ghanaian entrepreneur and how NGO aid hurts the economic development of his country
It makes global economic sense to 'dump'. It just doesn't locally.
And to counter my earlier point, it makes sense globally if you value profit the same everywhere. But profit made by people in low income is worth a lot more. So are capital investments by those people.
This is the result of those people 'consuming more'. In more humane terms, this is the result of poor people having more of a need for money. But that is 2 different ways of saying the same thing.
