Multinational corporations in Asia the labor-intensive factory

Abstract

In a segment of his recent television series on economics, “The Age of Uncertainty,” John Kenneth Galbraith makes a number of critical remarks about multinational corporations. However, towards the end of the program, the screen is suddenly filled with pictures of bustling Singapore, and Galbraith comments that, whatever else can be said of them, the MNCs have played a major role in bringing economic development and employment to this and many other parts of the world. The implication is that the employment and economic growth fostered by the large corporations in Asian countries like Singapore are—by definition—changes for the better.