The Black Market Provides Employment For Half Of The World’s Population

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Robert Neuwirth, in his new book, Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy): “Neuwirth points out that small, illegal, off-the-books businesses collectively account for trillions of dollars in commerce and employ fully half the world’s workers. Further, he says, these enterprises are critical sources of entrepreneurialism, innovation, and self-reliance. And the globe’s gray and black markets have grown during the international recession, adding jobs, increasing sales, and improving the lives of hundreds of millions. …

“They see themselves as supporting their family, hiring people, and putting their relatives through school—all without any help from the government or aid networks. …

“In most developing countries, it’s the only part of the economy that is growing. It has been growing every year for the past two decades while the legal economy has kind of stagnated. “Because it’s based purely on unfettered entrepreneurialism. Law-abiding companies in the developing world often have to work through all sorts of red tape and corruption. … It’s also an economy based on providing things that the mass of people can afford—not on high prices and large profit margins. It grows simply because people have to keep consuming—they have to keep eating, they have to keep clothing themselves. And that’s unaffected by global downturns and upturns.

“Half the workers of the world are part of System D [the self-reliance economy, or the DIY economy]. By 2020, that will be up to two-thirds. So, we’re talking about the majority of the people on the planet. …

“[These goods] are sold through tiny kiosks, street stalls, and little informal markets. …

“The biggest flow of goods is from China. …it’s also easy to deal with China.

“… huge international corporations want to get their goods into informal markets.

“…They sell lots of products through the little unregistered and unlicensed stores in the developing world. And they want their products in those stores, because that’s where the customers are.

“Basically, they hire a middleman…—sometimes several layers of local distributors—to get the product from a legal, formal, tax-paying company to a company willing to deal with unlicensed vendors who don’t pay taxes.”

My Comment: A parallel economic system is created in the world, and this helps it to survive in an environment where corporations want to subjugate everything and grab all the profits. For the time being, these systems support each other, but gradually the formal economy will hang itself on its own rope.  And the shadow economy will work on the principle of reasonable income and necessary goods. For now.
[69582]

Related Material:
Success Is Not In The Growth Of Wealth But In Its Distribution
Nobody Wants To Pay For The Market (The EU Market)
Our Future: Consumerism Or Humanism

Discussion | Share Feedback | Ask a question




Laitman.com Comments RSS Feed