Someone from New Zealand asked about my position on Globalization
Globalization is a two-edged variable, in my opinion. If it helps people, okay, if it hurts people, nay. Generally, I think globalization is inevitable as corporations and international partners make sweetheart deals and cross political boundaries in an endless search for new markets, free trade, and fresh profits.
Under this current tidal wave of "developing" under-performing economies, there are no countries anymore, really, only markets. To attempt to stop globalization is as hopeless and self-immolating as the Unabomber's violent crusade was against Technology, don't you think? If the G-7 leaders are allowing it, who can possibly deny it?
Yet again, if the "business" activities of globalization are hurting people in these new "markets," I think it requires investigation and rethinking, at the least. We the people should follow Thomas Jefferson's advice and "shake the tree of revolution from time to time."
Under this current tidal wave of "developing" under-performing economies, there are no countries anymore, really, only markets. To attempt to stop globalization is as hopeless and self-immolating as the Unabomber's violent crusade was against Technology, don't you think? If the G-7 leaders are allowing it, who can possibly deny it?
Yet again, if the "business" activities of globalization are hurting people in these new "markets," I think it requires investigation and rethinking, at the least. We the people should follow Thomas Jefferson's advice and "shake the tree of revolution from time to time."
Labels: Journal
5 Comments:
I see it as corporations moving jobs to the lowest cost countries, undoing all the gains that were gained by unions over the years. Of course, that's the viewpoint of one American nationalist.
If the trend continues, I see the future as a few superrich individuals, no middle class, and a lot of peons throughout the entire world.
Those "lowest cost" countries are quickly developing huge middle classes, just as our own middle class is shrinking. So maybe you're onto something here.
Peons unite!
Well, to balance things up, as a Libertarian free marketer, I see global free trade as the best solution for raising the living standards of developing countries, and, consequently, over turning the evils of child labour, etc. As mentioned by Richard, this is already becoming evident in the form of the rise of an increasingly affluent middle class in these countries (particularly Asia, India, etc). That is why I seethe when I see the luddite protestors at all of the WTO meetings held around the world.
Yes, this will cause pain in the developed countries, although, this does not inevitably mean a big rich / poor divide. There will always be a big middle class, in this case surviving around service industries, hi tech etc. And note that commodities can be high tech. My country, New Zealand, is considered a developed country but our main export is still agricultural commodities. We do this by adopting technology to be one of the most efficient producers of food (completely un-subsidised by Government) in the world. I'm a farm accountant, and can vouch to the stunning uptake of technologies and bio technologies by our rural sector.
But for me the chief positive of free trade, or simply of a laissez faire capitalist system, is that it is the stalwart of individual freedom, and will always bring in political freedom on its skirts. It is the free market of Hong Kong that will end Chinese Communism within the next fifty years (if not sooner). I hope it will ultimately have the same effect in the totalitarian Moslem territories. The best way to bring about the downfall of the President of Iran is to ship in Coke a Cola rather than armies. (Although I suspect the unreformed Islam, and probably unreformable, implacably opposed as it is the Western notions of liberty, will be a much harder nut to crack than Communism ever was.)
Goodness, quite a tirade. Sorry.
Cheers Mark Hubbard
Hello Someone from New Zealand,
Remind me to ask you for help with my accounting homework sometime! And I'm thinking that I really like your free market libertarian perspective on this, so thanks Mark. BTW, when Coke was first introduced into China, people there said it tasted like medicine. Little did they know…
But for Heaven's sake, don't mention my free market, Libertarian ways on Zoe. It would lose me too many friends and I like it there, so steer away from politics.
(Oh, I guess many of them read your blog :) ]
Mark
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