Chapter 20 was mostly centered around China and it's massive growth, and how that changed both global economy and it's own growth. China has devolped into a major player in the global economy due to it's electronics and manufacturing businesses. It grew so large through outsourcing, since many countries go to China to produce products or parts in it's countless factories. In these factories, they use low labor costs to keep production cheap. These low labor costs are great for foreign companies in the US, but for the actual workers, conditions are often dangerous and laboring.
Chapter 21 spoke about Global Commodity Chains a.k.a GCCs, and how they produce, manufacture, and distribute products globally across countries. The chapter specfically focuses on shoes during the 1900s, which experienced a large increase in purchases mostly amoung young people. Nike used these GCCs to design shoes in the US, then send the design to countries like China for them to make the shoes for cheaper due to low labor costs. With this, Nike keeps costs low while increasing profit.
In the TAL episode it mostly talks about how Cambodia's economy was on a fast decline after it's civil war, which caused great strain on the country. However, Cambodia started to pull itself up using things like garment factories, which gave higher wages than most jobs along with other benefits. Then, the US's trade policies stopped this growth, causing Cambodia's economy to start struggling yet again. Poorer countries are very much at the whim of richer countries and their economies hang on to the richer countries decisions.
Another reason why China was able to grow so much because of manufacturing was because of their transportation network, products and materials are able to travel much faster than in most other countries. As for Cambodia I wonder why the US suddenly went from supporting them to stunting their growth and what would happen if Cambodia in the future is able to diversify their economy more?
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