- It is certainly true that some people have lost jobs due to increases in international trade. It is also true that some people have lost jobs due to changes in technology. Should we treat those two causes differently? Why or why not?
I do not think we should treat those two differently. They both cause job loss because of the cost to produce a item is lower with new technology or having the item made out of the country. Business are not going to decide to keep people employed when their cost could be lower with technology (robot/machines) taking the place of them and cutting their cost down. The same is with international trade, companies will outsource if it is cheaper for them than keeping people employed and not making a greater profit.
2. How important is production efficiency to sustainability? How is trade related to efficiency? (This question is really for the many sustainability students in this class.
While I am not a sustainability student, I believe there should be a balance between efficiency and sustainability. Some companies might be very efficient, but not sustainable at all. While other companies are very sustainable, but not very efficient. it comes down to the ethics of each individual company. Trading is sometime more efficient than a company possibly producing that item on their own as it make take them too much time and cost too much.
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