If Globalization is the future, dare we press on?

We are told in no uncertain terms by economists and other so-called "leading experts" that globalization is the trend of the future. But as we look around and experience what globalization is all about, we might want to ask ourselves whether we are selling our future short.

Admittedly, there are seemingly many positives to globalization; not the least of which is its impact on reducing poverty in third world nations. Globalization has led to economic expansion in places like China and India and other South Asian countries. But perhaps the most difficult question to answer is whether globalization can be perceived as good for us and whether there is a downside that has been conveniently swept under the rug in extolling its virtues..
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For the most part, most of us who have been subjected to it, see few benefits. In fact, since the specter of globalization raised its head, we have seen our manufacturing base virtually disappear. We have seen our jobs shipped to foreign shores. And we have even witnessed the jobs associated with the post-manufacturing world being "off-shored" in sharp contrast to what we had anticipated after regurgitating the surfeit of myths in the Greening of America, the book that gave the green light to manufacturers seeking cheaper factors of production and higher profits.

In our time, we have seen America transformed from a manufacturing nation into one of the largest retailing nations selling product that are not much less expensive than they were when they were made here with the profits being split between the manufacturing nation and the retailing giants that now seem ready to decide our economic fates. Instead of seeing those profits used to buoy up American industry, now they seem to go to faceless giants with loyalties to phantom stock holders who care little about nationalistic pride or altruism or morality.

In the process, while we are told otherwise, we see little investment in American industry and technology and the quality of our lives threatened. In NAFTA, our first experience with globalization, we saw law suits against American States settled secretly behind closed doors without the intervention of State legislatures with the outcome far from judicious and democratic practices unwelcome. We have seen our products reduced to scrap and shipped to China so that they could be melted down and reshaped into newer and cheaper products while our own debt levels soared to heretofore unimagined levels that will penalize our growth and well-being for decades to come.

While this government extols what has happened as being "healthy, " the underlying truth is that only a small handful seem to be profiting inasmuch as most of the world's population lives at the poverty line and even with all of the globalization, find their lives hardly improved with no benefits, no days off and no guarantee of employment when their health falters and young willing workers are available to replace them.

Clearly, globalization benefits depend on where you stand. If you are in Ireland and you are shipping out intellectual products and services, you stand to benefit from globalization; for others, the USA included, globalization may be a misperceived two edged sword with pernicious overtones despite the legions of economists, government officials and capitalists who extol its virtues.

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon