text: Cheap labour or, if you go back 150 years, slave labour based societies don't do well in the long run.   Consumer societies in the Walmart-nation mold are based on debt and extreme income stratification.  
  
  A broad based economy whose emphasis is on production not consumption can offer all of its citizens living wage jobs.  The "very narrow interests" are the elites who benefit from cheap labour and asset inflation.  The consumers you say are benefiting from cheap labour really aren't because their wages are low and they are going into debt.
  
  High wage countries can have elevated social safety nets and fiscal balance but low wage countries cannot.  Getting your car hand washed for $4 doesn't compensate for this.
  
  Cheers,
  John Meyer