Globalization is the only way forward
Lately, everyone's afraid of globalization. Americans fear that outsourced jobs to India will fall the superpower. Europeans
fear losing the benefits of the welfare state. The rulers and old guard of Arab states fear an end to their monopoly on their
societies' resources and the start of political reforms.
The nation-state is evolving into a corporate-state. The president/prime minister is the CEO. American presidents and
cabinet secretaries travel the globe looking for new trade deals. American governors fly to far off places to sign their
own free trade agreements. The young Japanese prime minister exclaims, "Invest in Japan!" in a commercial shown on CNN every 15 minutes. Sure, you can raise import taxes on whatever you want. But so can the competition! The remnants of protectionism are sheltering farmers, but the day when your supermarket will carry fruits and vegetables from dozens of countries
has never been closer.
You can't both support globalization and also want to shut it all down because your corporate-state is losing jobs. Most jobs are lost because of internal economical factors. Secondly, competition of jobs with other corporate-states is fair game in an open market! If Indian programmers can do it better, then American programmers had better become more productive and creative.
We all want the fruits of globalization but not the challenges. We want the cellphone, Internet, 5,000 channels on TV, mp3 stereo, but heaven forbid a young man or woman in the third world should have an opportunity at their own home version of The American Dream! The far-left, who're against globalization, think they're protecting their friends in Asia and Africa. Just ask a young Asian with opportunities and lifestyles that his or her parents didn't dream of. The anti-globalizationists are really acting like the conservative old man at the country club fighting to keep newcomers out. When America moved from an agricultural society to an industrial society, it wasn't pretty. That's no reason to keep our friends in the fields!
Kenny Sahr
