Taking Back Globalization

[marmar]

from Project Syndicate:



Taking Back Globalization

Olivier De Schutter
2012-01-25


DAVOS – The World Economic Forum’s annual gathering is normally little more than a toast to the benefits of increasing global GDP, trade, and investment. But this year’s meeting comes at a time when economic expansion can no longer be taken for granted, and when the uneven benefits of past growth are sparking mass social unrest.

So it is little wonder that doomsday scenarios about the “seeds of dystopia” and the risks of “rolling back the globalization process” are being dangled in Davos. The world’s economic and political leaders stand warned: do globalization better, or it will be derailed by the growing legions of the discontented.

Leaders would be unwise to ignore this warning. Discussions in Davos must go beyond how to rectify the imbalances in developed countries’ debt-to-GDP ratios. They must finally pay attention to the wider imbalances generated by unfettered globalization.

Popular anger is directed not only at the bank bailouts, soaring public debt, and bleak employment prospects of recent years. All around the world, people have fallen afoul of a two-track economic process whereby whole industries have been sacrificed to cheaper imports, whole regions have been consigned to abandonment or degradation, and whole populations have been frozen out of economic progress. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/deschutter4/English

[fasttense]

1. It's interesting who is selected to suffer the ramifications of globalization.

Here in the US it is mostly manufacturing employees who got fired. Lately R&D is moving off shore too. Also tech jobs got destroyed here. Low wage farm work, restaurant work and cleaning hotels are taken by immigrants labeled as illegal so they can easily be underpaid and abused.

But doctors don't seem to be suffering, neither are bankers and financiers. There seems to be a glut of crappy service jobs too. I can understand why you can't contract out to China cleaning out your toilet or collecting your trash (but you can lure over immigrants and treat them like crap) but there are plenty of doctors in Cuba and other countries that would love to have jobs here. And why can't bankster and financiers do their same incompetent job in China as they do here? A CEO in China could easily enough direct employees here in the US, you don't need to have American CEOs.

In low wage countries, they get more crappy low wage jobs. India and China sure don't seem to be buying up all the crap they make and ship to the US. The US is still the largest market place in the world.

Seems globalization only hurts the little guy, just like before globalization.