Obama’s call for humane globalization may be too late
Obama’s call for humane globalization may be too late: Walkom
THOMAS WALKOM
Toronto Star
“If the benefits of globalization accrue only to those at the very top,” he said, “then people will push back.” In effect, his speech was a clarion call for a more humane form of global economic integration. It was also probably too late.
The TPP is unpopular for good reasons. Many Americans (and Canadians) don’t want to lose their jobs to workers in low-wage Pacific Rim countries like Vietnam. Given their experience with the North American Free Trade Agreement, Americans are justly suspicious of politicians who promise that these losses will be more than compensated for by new jobs at home.
... in the 1930s, governments around the world used the power of the state to resist the logic of a market capitalism that had depressed wages, prices and jobs.
In some countries, notably Germany and Italy, this resistance was commandeered by racists and fascists.
In others, it was not. U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, a direct challenge to the prevailing economic orthodoxy, led not to fascism but to projects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority electrification scheme.
Yep. We need a progressive answer to failed neoliberal policies or we'll be stuck with a right wing solution.
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