The Facade of Mutually Beneficial Globalist Theory Crumbling…

Popular backlash against globalisation is sweeping rich countries around the globe according to a recent Harris poll. Large majorities of people in the US and in Europe want higher taxation for the rich and pay caps for corporate executives to offset the perceived unjustified rewards to the priveledged few and the negative effects of globalisation on working people. It’s about time.

  

 

Leaders in the World Trade Organization call anti-globalism hate speech, I call it predictable outrage.

In the U.S., Congress is awash with anti-globalist sentiment as the Senate prepares to vote on new trade restrictions aimed at China. I have been blogging about the destructive effects of unrestricted globalism since 1990 and continue to oppose unrestricted free trade at the expense of our way of life. Conservative pundits, many economists, and some analysts have been peddling globalism and what they believe to be the necessary melding of economies into one international marketplace in order for our way of life to continue. This argument in fact was championed and still defended by former Clinton cabinet member Robert Reich.

Reich, and these other globalist ideolouges are short-sighted and ultimately incorrect in their conclusions.

Many assumptions were made that have proven fatal to the globalist theory. For instance, the theory assumes that more education, at least according to Reich, equals higher income. This might be true if “higher end” jobs are made available to these eventual skill empowered graduates. The fact is, countries like China have been handed or more appropriately, stolen proprietary technology in aerospace, computer technology, and other areas that has led to manufacturing and capital flight from this country with a destination of China. In turn, the corresponding jobs within such sectors of the U.S. economy have evaporated. The original globalist theory had countries like China making sneakers and toasters, not complex microchips and high-tech aerospace parts. Meanwhile we brush our teeth with poison Chinese toothpaste, our pets die of tainted dog food, our kids play with lead based Chinese toys, and factory workers burn to death in Chinese steel mills with no consequence.

Another assumption did not account for developing countries to simply violate international trade policy at the expense of countries like the U.S. For example, China artificially devalues its currency to gain a trading advantage. Overtly unfair trade barriers are thrown up that make selling goods by U.S. companies in the Pacific Rim almost impossible. Couple this with some good old fashioned American coporate greed and you have a situation that has seen Chinese imports to the U.S. increase ten-fold since 1995 while real wages in the U.S. and exports steadily stagnate or even decline. We remain productive but we work like packmules to acheive that productivity as corporate management holds the baton of globalism and the threat of job loss over our collective head if we do not continue at the current breakneck pace. Yet, our most cherished and longest standing companies like General Motors and Ford suffer, and in the background, our corrupt politicians and unscrupulous corporate culture slowly sell our economy down the river. Where does it end?

If continued growth in GDP and a robust tax base is to continue, this country must be willing to protect certain industries for the sake of propping up a middle class that is being squeezed to the limit. If we do not, we may very well find ourselves in a shrinking economy as countries like China, Korea, Brazil and the European Union surpass U.S. productivity and per capita income. It may not be as outlandish as it sounds. I am not making an argument for unilateral protectionism, but when U.S. workers are made to compete against workers producing steel in China who earn $2500.00 American dollars per year and are expected to do it with no health care, no retirement security and a crumbling education system…something must change if modern Western culture is to survive.        

Fuzzy Conservative Math: 2 plus 2 Equals 1

 

One thing that Americans hate about Chinese is that there are not enough of them. I have heard countless arguments from people that it is immoral and unethical and oppressive for China to control its population growth. Well, first of all the “control” of its population growth is far less severe than people here believe. It is only the ethnic majority that are limited to one child and if their child dies as an infant they can have another. And there are dozens of other exceptions that allow for more than one child. But if someone simply has another child rarely does anyone even say anything. The law simply is not enforced. But that is beside my point. I think it is funny when people here take a “for-shame” tone about China’s population control. I ask them, “Do you really wish there were ten times as many Chinese out there?” They already outnumber us 6 to 1. There is not much room left in south east Asia so most of them would have to come to wide open spaces – like here. No one ever answers. But the truth is I don’t understand why China doesn’t try to outnumber us 60 to 1. Maybe it is because they really like us. But since we seem hellbent on going to war with them before 2045 it would make sense (we’ll call that World Oil War III). They seem to think if they have, say 6 billion more people in the next 30 years it will cause massive shortages of food, water, plumbing, housing, jobs, health care, etc. Of course this is very silly of them, but strangely enough we seem to have the same delusion here (we are not so different from the Chinese after all).

We seem to live in constant fear that if more than 10 people per year cross our boarders and stay that we will lose our cars, our gameboys, our 401ks and our jobs. Why does anyone believe this nonsense? If Arabs live I am going to die. If Mexicans work I will be unemployed . If people in India have food to eat I will go hungry. If I give a homeless man a dollar soon he will live in a mansion and i will be broke. Where is the rationale behind this? If you have two children you must love one of them and hate the other because if you try to love them both the universe will implode. I don’t get it.

Let me explain why this is so simple for me and I don’t understand other people’s perspective on this one. Let’s say we open our doors to Mexico – in fact – let’s open our doors to all of Latin America. Anyone who wants in gets in – no red-tape. Yes, the Neo-Cons would go crazy but I am still looking for a downside. First of all, I can guarantee no where near as many people as you might think would take the offer. But that is not my point. At most there are about 300 million of us now. Let’s say over night the population more than triples to 1 billion. Of course this would never happen, not that many people feel like moving and the process would be very slow even if they did. But let’s pretend. “Oh no!” Everyone says, “Who will ever feed, house, clothe, and care for these 700 million new people?” – Gee, I don’t know. How about the 700 million unemployed people who just showed up? Why not give them jobs as farmers, cooks, textile workers, builders, teachers, doctors, etc. I never understand how politicians and other demigogues can stand before the country and say, “We have two grave problems to face and no solution in site: one, everything is falling apart and we don’t have the manpower to fix anything, and two, unemployment is just too high.” If you have something that needs to be done and you have someone with nothing to do you do not have 2 problems – you have one solution.

When I was young coming up in North Carolina it was a vast empty desert with a few crusty old klansmen and some inbred mountain folk, that’s how I remember it anyway. Today it is a thriving state with numerous sprawling metropolitan communities that simply didn’t exist 25 years ago. What happened? Shortly after I moved some change in political climate (I can’t remember what anymore) caused many thousands of people of Mexican heritage to migrate to North Carolina. It did not destroy the state, it made it excel.

Unfortunately in a racist society like ours it is predictable that heavy manual labor and grunt work will be delegated to Mexicans if there are any around, and Blacks othewise. If your state suddenly has millions of new farmers, cooks, maids, janitors, factory workers, construction crews, orderlies, etc. then all that will still be needed is skilled labor, teachers, restaurant owners, local news teams, small businesses, lawyers, etc. And that is what they got. Masses of unemployed college educated people from Western New York and Ohio (where there are few Mexicans) flooded to North Carolina to find work. And they are still there.

My point is simple, more people means more needs and more needs means more jobs, not less. But then again, those in power have always known this. That is why when Haitians and Mexicans and others running from oppression and poverty come here they are turned away at gunpoint while Cubans are immediately accepted and embraced as citizens. There is no fear of running out of anything here. Our immigration policies are based on geopolitical chess games and racism. But it sounds a lot better to say “there is not enough America to go around” than to say, “America doesn’t have any more use for your race but we’ll take more of someone else’s.”

China: Big and Scary – Like Sasquatch

I got an e-mail a while back from some bulk mailing group that I never asked to be a part of scaring me that China was hell-bent on destroying America and that their tool for doing so was none other than WalMart. I tried to contain my fear long enough to go to their website (http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/) and make myself an informed citizen. On the website is a wealth of information and testimonials about the anti-union harsh working conditions of WalMarts across the U.S., information about WalMart’s destruction of communities, and generally about how WalMart just sucks. But none of this really feared me into action. Where was the Shock and Awe? Where were the terrorists out to get me? But upon closer inspection – there they were! The video clip that their organization has aired on T.V. and promotes on their website has two flags blowing in the background. Both have stars and lots of red, but only one of them is American! As if foreigners have not insulted us enough by having a flag other than ours they also have jobs! No, it’s true – people in China, India, and Mexico are employed – and not every American makes 20 times as much as them in an hour! Will the injustice never end?! The video implies that China is on the verge of taking over America and Walmart is the vehicle they will use to do it. “But how are they doing this and what can I do to help (stop it, that is)” you obediently ask. The answer is simple. So simple. They are stealing American jobs! Like some kind of bizarro tooth fairies they sneak into our good American houses at night, pull our employment off our mantles and from under our pillows, and run back to China and other foreign places with them. Now I was really scared. 9-11 scared.

By being employed the Chinese workers obviously force Americans to be unemployed. And by being paid far less than even American WalMart workers they were obviously getting rich enough to take over the world! Since WalMart gives their Chinese employees so much less – imagine what American WalMart employees could do with all their loot, if only they were more Chinese about it. According to the website the average worker on the floor at WalMart makes about $8.23. The website correctly explains over and over how it is nearly impossible to survive on this little pay. I think most Chinese workers employed in WalMart’s factories make less than 1/10 this much an hour. But somehow they not only survive but they have enough left over – according to the website – to buy out WalMart (anytime they choose) and next? America! Yes, I am scared – but I can’t help but wonder – how can they stretch a buck so far? And why can’t we do that? Do we need to shop at WalMart to save money the way they do? Or should we be involved in less trillion dollar wars of aggression over oil and just drive less? (I am assuming the war will have cost trillions of dollars before anyone decides to pull us out.) Or are they using some kind of magic that makes poverty turn into wealth? Like all those welfare moms that are secretly queens? Some kind of ancient Chinese magic or socialist voodoo? Or, wait, here’s another possiblity that the website forgot to mention. What if WalMart sucks worse than they imagined? What if they suck for their Chinese employees as much as for their American employees? What if China isn’t trying to take over the world and oppress us but WalMart is? Suddenly things started making a lot more sense. WalMart screws over factory workers in China, then they screw over the store employees here, then the consumer gets a really good deal on an inferior product while watching all the mom and pop stores and local businesses evaporate. Maybe WalMart is the common thread here. Maybe the sinister Chinese were not stealing American jobs – maybe WalMart was giving them away. Maybe the company with an absolute lack of ethics here also has an absolute lack of ethics across the ocean. That was so simple it was true. But then I began to wonder why someone with all the money and resources to put up this sharp and stylish website couldn’t figure out what was clear to a high school drop-out surfing the web for mac and cheese recipes. Then, again, it occurred to me, maybe they didn’t see how twisted WalMart is because they didn’t really want to. Maybe they kind of like WalMart, maybe they kind of hate the Chinese, so maybe that makes it a lot easier to blame the victim. Sort of like when we say welfare mothers live like queens while poor Kenneth Lay’s millionaire wife has to live like a pauper. Maybe it is just racism. Our country has always had a very easy time hating Asians. And maybe it also has to do with embarrassment.

After I took a second look at the website I discovered that this “grassroots” campaign was funded and run by UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers union). The “United” at the beginning of their name is somewhat ironic as, in recent years, they joined the “Change to Win” faction that split off from the AFL-CIO. There is even more irony in “Change to Win” leader’s explanations at the time of the split that Sweeney and the AFL-CIO were too political. That the focus needed to be on taking care of business here and now (I am paraphrasing but that was clearly the sentiment). It seems to me that misdirecting anger at WalMart’s barely legal abuse of workers to China is political and is not focusing on the needs of workers here and now. To be caught in such hypocrisy must me embarrassing – but not as embarrassing as the arrogant attitude of those leading the charge away from the AFL-CIO split who claimed the separations would lead to more money, more union membership, and more unions. How red their faces must be now (pardon the pun) that while they still struggle to unionize service industries in the U.S. every WalMart in China is unionized. The China hating elements in the Unions here cannot address this issue because they have always claimed that there are no unions in China. How then can they explain even WalMart being unioned there – but not here? I expect that when they claimed Chinese workers were not unionized they meant they were not members of a legitimate AFL-CIO union. But that is very hard to say now since the UFCW can no longer claim to be a legitimate AFL-CIO union.

In the midst of all this hypocrisy and embarrassment the only thing to do is preach hatred for what is different, promote xenophobia and racism, and hope that the lynch-mob frenzy will keep anyone from noticing your own short-comings and faulty logic.

(I left a message stating most of the above, without vulgarity or hate speech, on one of their open democratic forums – it was quickly deleted.)