It’s been an interesting 55-years. Like many children of the ‘60s, I was born into a manufacturing economy. As the years ticked by this was subsequently swept away by the knowledge economy, which was looked upon as higher value, cleaner and more environmentally sound. Just as I got to grips with that concept, it too was pushed aside by the service economy, which itself spawned its little brother: the gig economy. Then along comes Covid-19 which destroys the service and gig sectors overnight.
I understand that in a globalised, interconnected world where people, products, services and money can cross back and forth across borders unimpeded, entire countries need to specialise so they can unleash their limited resources in a specific direction to reap the manual and mental economies of scale required to be competitive.
However, there seems to be a fundamental flaw in this idea. What happens if a country willingly abandons one economic direction for another, only to have the latter snatched away before it has had the opportunity to move on? I guess you are left with little or nothing and some important decisions to make.
How about diversifying across primary, secondary and tertiary economies (so we get to simultaneously think, make and serve) while implementing industry 4.0 techniques to remain globally competitive
on a micro or medium scale?
It’s a plan.