Thread: Globalization anxiety

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la- ... -rightrail

Globalization anxiety
The world is richer than ever before, but the vast middle class isn't getting many of the benefits.
By Lawrence H. Summers
LAWRENCE H. SUMMERS is a contributing editor to Opinion.

October 30, 2006

AGAINST ALL ODDS, we are living in a time of plenty. Neither the aftershocks of Sept. 11 nor a tripling in oil prices has prevented the world's economy from growing faster in the last five years than in any five-year period in recorded economic history. Given recent economic performance and the pricing-in by world markets of an optimistic outlook, one might have expected this to be a moment of particularly great enthusiasm and widespread support for free markets and for global integration.

Yet, in many corners of the globe, there is growing disillusion with the market system and global integration. From the failure to complete the Doha round of global trade talks to pervasive Wal-Mart bashing, from massive renationalization in Russia to the increasing success of populists in Latin American and Eastern European politics, we see a degree of anxiety about the market system that is unmatched since the fall of the Berlin Wall and probably well before.

Why is there such disillusionment? No doubt particular factors in individual countries enter into the equation. Some anti-globalization sentiment stems from opposition to the Bush administration's foreign policy misadventures. But there is a much more fundamental and troubling source of resistance: the growing recognition that the vast global middle is not sharing the benefits of the current period of economic growth — that, in fact, its share of the pie is not growing and may even be shrinking.

John Kenneth Galbraith was right when he observed: "All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common. It was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership."

Meeting the needs of the anxious global middle is the economic challenge of our time.

Two groups have found themselves in the right place at the right time to benefit from globalization and technological change. First, those in low-income countries, principally in Asia and especially in China, that are able to plug into the global system. Low wages combined with the accessibility of technology and capital via financial markets have fueled an economic explosion.

It is important to remember that the period between the late 18th and early 19th century in Britain and continental Europe was called the Industrial Revolution for a reason. For the first time in human history, the standards of living of one generation were visibly and demonstrably better than the one before. In a single human lifespan, real per capita incomes doubled, and then doubled again. If sustained, the growth rate experienced by China during the last 30 years would lead to a hundred-fold improvement in living standards over a single human lifespan.

Second, it has been a golden age for those who already own valuable assets. Owners of scarce commodities have seen their returns rise prodigiously. Those who own or operate businesses that can take advantage of globalization to rely on less expensive labor and to sell to larger markets than ever before have seen their incomes rise far faster than incomes generally.

Everyone else has not fared nearly as well. Low-cost labor — ordinary, middle-class workers and their employers, whether they live in the American Midwest, Germany's Ruhr Valley, Latin America or Eastern Europe — are left out. This is the essential reason why median family incomes lag far below productivity growth in the United States, why average family incomes in Mexico have barely grown in the 13 years since NAFTA passed and why middle-income countries without natural resources struggle to define an area of comparative advantage.

It is this vast group — which lacks the capital to benefit from globalization and cannot imagine competing on cost with Chinese workers — that is desperately seeking either reassurance about the shrinking world or a change in course. And yet, without its support, it is very doubtful that the existing global economic order can be maintained. The twin arguments that globalization is inevitable and protectionism is counterproductive for almost everyone have the great virtue of being correct — but they do not provide much consolation for the losers.

Economists rightly emphasize that trade, like other forms of progress, makes everyone richer by enabling people to buy goods at lower prices. But this opportunity offers small solace to those who fear that their jobs will vanish. Nor can education be a complete answer at a time when skilled computer programmers in India are paid less than $2,000 a month. More can be done to strengthen protections for displaced workers. But such an approach is inevitably reactive and defensive.

In the United States, and perhaps beyond, the political pendulum is swinging left. The best parts of the progressive tradition do not oppose the market system; they improve on the outcomes it naturally produces. That is what we need today.

There are no easy answers. The economic logic of free, globalized, technologically sophisticated capitalism may well be to shift more wealth to the very richest and some of the very poorest in the world, while squeezing people in the middle.

Just as the GI Bill and domestic housing programs in the aftermath of World War II were crucial parts of the overall policy approach in the United States that permitted the Marshall Plan, GATT and international financial institutions to go forward, our success in advancing international integration will again depend on what can be done for the great middle class, at home and abroad.

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/fa ... .html#Econ

Note that according to the CIA since 1975 only the top 20% of households have experienced any increase in income.

That means 80% of the US Population has been treading water for the past 31 years.

It's time we stand up for our fellow citizens so that this generation unlike the last will be able to not only have hope for a better life but actually experience a better life.

When 80% of the American Population can't say ... after 31 years of working I am no better off .... then it's long past due for their fellow citizens to stand up for them and tell their Executive Branch and US Congress to fix it by cancelling all Free Trade Agreements, withdrawing from the WTO, and passing the Fair Tax immediately.

In other words tell the Globalists to get lost. We don't "need ya". Take your ideas and burn them and start over standing next to up for and with your fellow Americans or get out of our market and politics.

PERIOD.

Use "All I Want For Christmas Is My Country Back" to send the message to Globalists that they are no longer welcome in the USA ... they can take their imports; their trade deficits; their illegal immigration; their "merging" our nation with other countries and stick it all where the sun don't shine ... or we will.

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=45150

"All I Want For Christmas Is My Country Back"

Use "All I Want For Christmas Is My Country Back" to send the message to Globalists that they are no longer welcome in the USA ... they can take their imports; their trade deficits; their illegal immigration; their "merging" our nation with other countries and stick it all where the sun don't shine ... or we will.

Amen Judy!

This guy is suggesting that we'd all be good little globalist if we just had a bigger piece of the pie.

our success in advancing international integration will again depend on what can be done for the great middle class, at home and abroad.

Gee Mr Summers, Do you think we ought to ask the American people if we want "international integration"?

These pin-head think tanks, trying to twist the World into what they think should be done...taking our jobs and giving them to foreign countries...distribute the wealth, but it's going to the already rich...and
Countries like, USA, England, France, Germany are losing out.

I read an article out of England, yesterday. It said that the biggest ship ever, was bringing Chinese made goods and cars into England before Christmas....it went on to say how the English have lost their jobs, how this ship is bringing in even the smallest things England used to make, even their foods and desserts.

I just don't know how to stop these think tanks, that get our governments to turn on the workers here!

How to stop the think tanks?

Good question.

Maybe by proving them wrong and cutting commercial Christmas expenditures, eh?



Then it doesn't matter what THEY say; the only thing that will matter to our government and their buddy globalists are what WE say!!

Originally Posted by Judy

How to stop the think tanks?

Good question.

Maybe by proving them wrong and cutting commercial Christmas expenditures, eh?



Then it doesn't matter what THEY say; the only thing that will matter to our government and their buddy globalists are what WE say!!

You can still shop for Christmas and hurt the globalists. BUY AMERICAN!

Originally Posted by jp_48504

Originally Posted by Judy

How to stop the think tanks?

Good question.

Maybe by proving them wrong and cutting commercial Christmas expenditures, eh?



Then it doesn't matter what THEY say; the only thing that will matter to our government and their buddy globalists are what WE say!!

You can still shop for Christmas and hurt the globalists. BUY AMERICAN!

And I'll give ya a double AMEN, JP

It's a little more time consuming but it's so worth it. I've been doing
it for years.

Right On JP and 2ndamendsis ..

BUY AMERICAN THIS CHRISTMAS AND GET OUR COUNTRY BACK!!

I think we should start a thread with links to shops offer American Made Products. Lets have fun with the globalists this year.