What's wrong with Globalization?

That sounds good and all, but its totally false. Have you ever heard of China and India? Yes these were the poor countries you speak of before globalization and now china has the 4th largest and fastest growing economy. See those are facts. Of course not everyone in the world will become rich, thats impossible. But many more people are today because of globalization and free trade.

 

China and India are experiencing a bubble, not unlike the dot com bubble we experienced a while back. They're prospering at the expense of American jobs, because they are willing to do the work for less, and our government is allowing our corporations to hire them instead of us, in effect selling us out. It won't last, because eventually the cost of living over there will rise to where it's comparable to what it is here, and those people will no longer be able to afford to live on what our corporations pay them. It's all good in the short term for the elite few, because investors and corporate honchos profit from it, while the rest of us get stuck with lower wages and unemployment.

Meanwhile our national debt is at a record high, and my understanding is it's wealthy Chinese businessmen who are under-writing our debt. What happens when they decide to collect on it? I guess then we'll be forced to fork over our infrastructure, like natural resources, national parks, along with our freedom, and we'll be subjected to a life of indentured servitude. Of course, that could change if we get our act together...

 

That's completely wrong, are we stealing Indian jobs when we export goods and services to India? Besides, exporting isn't "winning" and importing isn't "losing".

How do you think Taiwan and South Korea got rich? The same way, through trade. It wasn't "good in the short term for the elite few", it raised whole nations out of poverty with lasting results. The poorest countries in the world have one thing in common - they hardly trade anything with anybody. Hating trade is just condemning poor countries to perpetual poverty.

 

I never said it was. I'm not knocking free trade, nor am I resentful of India and China for their prosperity, good for them.

What pisses me off is how free trade is manifested in this country. Corporations who enjoy the subsidies from our tax base that we pay for are also enjoying the profits of cheap overseas labor, a win-win situation for them, a lose-lose situation for us workers, unless you're an investor or high up in the corporate food chain. And because our government doesn't step in and regulate this activity, corporations can't afford not to outsource. If they don't, they won't stay in business because their competitors will.

 

Corporations pay tax, the are not subsidised by our taxes and more than you are subsidised by taxes.

And you do benefit from cheap overseas labour, anyone who buys anything benefits from low cost suppliers.

 

Agreed, but what about how low cost labor is treated? Sweat shops and such.

 

I see sweat shops as a stage in development, all countries go through it. It isn't a dead end, as we can see in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, people (sometimes whole generations) lived through it but they or their children went on to better things. I think the same will happen in China and India. If they didn't have labour intensive manufacturing jobs, what would they do? Subsistence agriculture? People flock to the cities for these jobs, they are better than what they left behind.

 

'depends on how you define "better off".

 

You're soo right, in the end if this madness keep on growing, the whole world will became a huge wallmart with a mc donalds inside, sorry, that was the whole point of my mc donalds thread, they are trying to make you get used to it, in time you will not see it as a bad thing, and if they make you get used to it since you're a kid, what difference will it make, i think that you will ask for it.

In the end we all get screwed, you will not be able to fight against it, you will be working for them.

 

Police, who have mask in his head. That sucks.

 

That's nice and cute and all, but tell that to a laid- off textile factory worker and it isn't so cutsy.

There are no cute rainbows or pretty flowers with Globalization. It is nothing but corporate greed and an easy way to take advantage of the poorest people in the world.

 

The only reason some of your are trying to spin globalism off as a good thing is because the democrats you guys are voting for tell you untruths and rhetoric about how great it is... Bill Clinton's NAFTA will never be forgiven or forgotten by the American people.

And your corporate sell-out candidates like Hillary and Obama keep spouting off about the benefits of Globalism. They have been bought out by the wealthy and powerful and do not intend to do any good for you people.


In 2-3 years fro now, I will be wearing my "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for RON PAUL" T- shirt with pride. But that won't give me NEARLY as much pride as being right ALL ALONG about our politicians and government.

 

Man that is soo not true. personally I am a firm believer in the Washington ideal. Our first president warned that seperating ourselves into factions like we have would be the eventual downfall of this country. An' so far thats proved pretty damn true. I believe that globalization would be better because of the simple facts that come with it. But of course if man goes like he normally does it'll be corrupted before it can even sow one good seed man.

 

That´s so true

 

Well stated.

 

I'm not that old, but saying this kinda makes me feel that way. When I was 17 I took a trip with my girlfriend from Ohio to Colorado. Her family had a place in Breckenridge we used as homebase, but we spent most of the three weeks we were there driving all over Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. And it was so amazing to see all of the remote towns with a few hundred houses and a downtown with a small grocery store, a hardware store, a handful of restaurants and all of that good stuff you'd expect. For those three weeks we ate lunch and dinner at some different diner or cafe in some little town. We wandered in and out of the local stores. And in this process we discovered the uniqueness of each town. It's hard to explain, it's something you have to experience. The west is about the only place I have travelled and seen that.

There is only one exception, and that is a hippy town near me called Yellow Springs. That town has fought Walmart and big companies fiercely and may be one of the last real American towns.


With that in mind, over the past 15 years or more, I have watched the area I live in grow into something very commercial. Not that it wasn't already a big city before I was born. But I have seen the death of the butcher shop down the street. I have seen all of the small grocery stores thanks to Meijer, Kroger and WalMart. I have seen the boutique stores run out due to them too. The malls killed the hippy stores we use to have. Now Hot Topic, Pacific Sunwear and the like sell the same clothes (made cheaper and of less quality) at the mall. It's to the point that to buy anything you either have to go to Walmart, the mall or travel 20 plus miles to find a mom and pop. People around here may be saving a couple hundred dollars a year, but its at the sacrifice of any uniqueness or individuality at all.

What point will their be in travelling when every town has the same stores?

Is it really a Philly cheesesteak when you can get it anywhere?

 

The problem with globalization is that more and more jobs are being exported overseas.

In the transition from a producer society to a consumer society, American consumers need to have jobs in order to buy the goods produced overseas.

 

The problem I have with Globalization is it is used by US companies to circumvent laws that were put in place to protect children,safety laws,environmental laws etc.. One of the primary reasons that companies in the US send jobs to Communist china is so they can circumvent Child Labor laws and have 12 year olds running machinery, unsafe working condition for workers etc..

 

primarily what is wrong is that its the wrong things that are being globalized.

i mean rather exactly and precisely the wrongest possible things to do so.

other then that, some things, to globalize would be great.

like mobility NOT based on indenture to private vehicules, the oppening, not closing of borders to human mobility.

the wrong things that are being globalized are brutality and the romantacizing of aggressiveness and putting symbolic value ahead of the real gratification, even mere survival, of real people, places and things.

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