The price of globalization

International Herald Tribune ^ | January 10, 2004 | William Pfaff

[monkeywrench]

Btt! Great answers!!!

[eleni121]

Manufacturing jobs increased by 493,300 from 1982 to 1998 and continue to do so in right-to-work states while declining 1,063,200 in states with compulsory union laws. These numbers come from the Bureau of labor statistics (you can easily look them up yourself).

Try to understand this: the highly unionized US car industry is killing itself because it cannot compete with non-unionized labor whether here or abroad.

No high school grad is worth 40-50 bucks an hour working on a line. It's about time that you and everyone else realized this.

[eleni121]

Global economics is indeed rooted and driven by fundamental principles of capitalism. Everywhere we see nations whether democratic or not making changes in their economic systems in order to take advantage of global capital and markets. They have heard the message that the west has long urged them to hear.

[Zack Nguyen]

...the rising middle classes abroad will be in better shape to purchase goods and services from us.

I might agree - but too many of these countries have very strict tariff laws themselves, and fewer of our goods get into their countries for them to purchase.

How does one deal with that?

[iconoclast]

The iron law of wages would seem to function only if the supply of labor is infinite and totally mobile.

Or, in today's reality, .. labor is infinite and totally available ... ie, if the grass appears a little greener on another continent, simply take advantage ... as in moving your exploitation from Mexico to Asia.

[iconoclast]

Open borders is an issue that should be less about jobs and lower salaries and more about assimilation in my opinion. There is something to be said about immigrants speeding up the process of increased efficiency and productivity but the main problem I would have with it is that too many people of any one ethnic backgound unwilling or unable to assimilate by the 2-3 generations. I do not think that has happened before but it could in the southwest.

ROTFLMAO!

Translation: I'm not afraid or the sheeple ... but those Mexicans have me worried!

[Thisiswhoweare]

"Global economics is indeed rooted and driven by fundamental principles of capitalism."

Global or local economics are always rooted in capitalism, despite how hard any nation or state attempts to dissuade its appetites. However crude, blackmarkets in socialist or communist countries are a direct result of capitalist fervor in the face of tyranny. Tar and feathers, if I recall, have also been sought as a remedy.

What I am referring is the current globalisation movement cannot be equated with simple capitalism. This would be a complete mistake. This movement has been about for a while; blessed, hailed and entrenched in our laws and foreign affairs by such men as Gorbachov, Clinton, Annan and now, well shall I include his name in that list?

Oh, and I'll answer bert's question from #86 about Mexican laborers cutting Christmas trees in NC:
because if the American worker gets hurt, the workmans comp, medical expenses. raised premiums in addition to unemployment payments, OSHA inspections and potential law suites will simply destroy any hope of a profit margin. So the business owner breaks the law and the government lets him so long as he pays his taxes and shuts up. But instead of solving the problem, our current administration is extending a circumvention of the problem to the markets. Clinton did it as well. We are, in effect, enhancing the blackmarket rather cleaning out the barn.

Which is why so many conservative are outraged at the current lame attempt at amnesty: because it circumvents both the burden and value of citizenship and thus destroys it. One would expect a powerful, conservative president to deconstruct the regulatory morass, drain the welfare swamp, slash the confiscation rate, and reform predatory class action law practices out of business. Instead, he has hyperxtended government, passed education reforms only a socialist would like, dropped a penny in the bucket on tax reform to appease the crowd, failed to do anything more than talk with about tort reform, I will only touch on what has happened to the constitution in the form of campaign finance reform, and restriction of our liberties while ignoring our porous borders.

So instead of restoring the system, we get H1Bs, outsourcing, offshoring and other schemes to enable large corporations to circumvent the problem while allowing the average citizen to rot and the country to slide further into a socialist abyss...and some call it capitalism. This globalist movement is not capitalist in nature - it enhances the corruptions and socialist stew it was born in - and some here even have the gall to wrap it in a flag. It is mercantilism with a self destructive, state sponsored twist, and its calculable end will be the death of our nation, and the tattered remnants of our culture and our laws.

[sarcasm]

Great post.