That's a simplified version of what Cowen's arguing here, but frankly it's a strange argument to make.
India reverted to subsistence farming after UK trade policy essentially forced them to buy cotton spun by machines in Manchester instead of cotton made by hand-looms in nearby craft villages. But we're talking about uneducated, illiterate cottage industry workers reverting to the only other trade they could participate in, in a country whose social and economic mobility was nonexistant even before the British started arriving.
It really couldn't be much further from the US outsourcing menial production line jobs to developing countries whilst keeping the cushier design, marketing, management, finance and logistics jobs for its own educated workforce.
India reverted to subsistence farming after UK trade policy essentially forced them to buy cotton spun by machines in Manchester instead of cotton made by hand-looms in nearby craft villages. But we're talking about uneducated, illiterate cottage industry workers reverting to the only other trade they could participate in, in a country whose social and economic mobility was nonexistant even before the British started arriving.
It really couldn't be much further from the US outsourcing menial production line jobs to developing countries whilst keeping the cushier design, marketing, management, finance and logistics jobs for its own educated workforce.