As an introduction to Open Democracy’’s new series, “Decolonising the Economy,” Laura Basu explains the problematic inner-workings of the global economy and highlights the changes that must be made to create more equitable, livable, sustainable futures. Basu argues the global economy is an imperialistic, rigged system in which the global north’s wealth and prosperity are dependent on the underdevelopment of the global south. She explains that transnational corporations and the State actors who support them have the most to gain from this system. Because transnational corporations are often based in the global north (mainly in the United States and the United Kingdom), those nations’ economies will benefit from corporations’ financial success. However, those same corporations likely base their manufacturing centers in the Global South, where they can employ workers for very low wages — wages that negatively impact workers’ quality of life and their nations’ economies.
