Re: the negative side of globalization
- From: "Rose Melinis" <rosemelinis@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 20:48:21 GMT
"Globalization" has been a reality since the first pre-historic person got
in a boat to go find neighbors to trade with. Trade barriers and
protectionism have been part of the landscape since recorded history. Heck,
even the Greeks protested the cheap fish sauce imported from Italy - long,
long before the birth of Christ.
Things eventually even out. There are always ripples in the economic pool
when someone new jumps in. Lately it has been China. In recent history it
was Japan that became an "economic threat" with their cheap automobiles in
the USA. Eventually the Japanese economy grew to the point that they were
"outsourcing" jobs to South Korea and Taiwan. Now South Korea, et al, have
improved economically and are "outsourcing" jobs to Vietnam and other
countries. Eventually China will be looking to outsource jobs because their
economy will grow. Heck, Japan has outsourced auto assembly to states in the
USA like Tennessee, etc., years ago. The only threat to that is when
knee-jerk alarmists like the writer quoted below go berserk, and they use
scare tactics to try and unionize the currently happy workers. Then the
Japanese assembly plants in the USA will become like the General Motors and
Fords are today.
Unions and liberal welfare mongers are the true cause of economic problems
within the countries they have an influence in. Witness Germany, Italy,
France.
Maybe the day will come when China will outsource work to Mexico and Latin
America. Oh, no, I guess that won't work. There is no work ethic down there
in the land of Spanglish.
So, I guess the doomsday scenarios of Mr. Kapunan are basically history
re-written to suit his own ends. In other words, they are "B" as in "B", "S"
as in "S".
"ron calderon" <socculturefilipino@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1131199401.876500.195250@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
B·A·C·K·B·E·N·C·H·E·R
ROD P. KAPUNAN
The curse of globalization
Saturday, 11 05, 2005
In globalism, the state is supposed to maximize its comparative
advantage, and would have no room for outsourcing as each specializes a
product sold at the cheapest price, but this is not working. The
economies of the US and Western Europe are experiencing a paradox
pattern, and the contradiction is without a solution. While their
workers battle to keep high wages and the welfare given to forestall
the advances of socialism, many companies are on a slow death due to
foreign competition.
As the economies of the world create serious imbalance, outsourcing
continues to flourish. The practice stands in contradiction despite the
bounties brought about by the distortions of free trade. It has reached
the point where it is no longer affordable to buy their products due to
high wages, revaluation of their currency, and decline in exports to
countries that can no longer absorb their products. The rich countries
have become victims of the system unmindful that globalization works
only in situations where there is a seller and a buyer ready to buy at
an affordable price.
Free trade is now nearing the end of its viability as globalists
continue to deprive the buyers' market of its money to buy their
exports. This is understandable since the first casualty of free trade
is deficit, meaning as less developed countries like the Philippines
continue to import more than being able to export, which proves adverse
to the economy.
First, the value of the local currency is gradually lessened. Second,
as local industries, which are mostly import-dependent, are affected by
higher importation cost, many of them fold up due to bankruptcy. Third,
as unemployment rises, it lessens the capacity of the market to absorb
imported products. Fourth, in turn the country suffers chronic and
widening foreign debt due to declining revenues in income, and export
and import taxes. Fifth, as the state rots, free trade simply crumbles.
The third curse of globalization is the proliferation of industries
engaged in the counterfeiting of highly valuable goods from the West.
Counterfeiting thrives because globalization has virtually wiped out
the middle-class in most countries. In the Philippines and the rest of
the developing countries, only the middle-class, the nouveau riche, and
the elite have developed the consciousness to patronize imported luxury
and signature products. Before that, the middle-class was their most
promising market. Because of their Western-oriented values reinforced
by lucrative employment mostly in multinational companies, it was this
class that had the taste for highly priced goods. The middle-class and
to a lesser extent the nouveau riche wanted to imbibe the ways of the
elite.
These patrons of foreign products never entertained the thought their
high-paying jobs would come to an end. It was this stupid class that
articulated the advantages of free trade because they thought it would
satisfy their cravings for cheap imported goods coming in with less
tariff. The lambasted the nationalists and the Left, accusing them of
ignorance and obscurantism. But when the well finally dried up, many of
them began to lose their employment and their businesses went kaput.
As the economy continues to dwindle and the market for the luxurious
imported products shrinks, counterfeiting gradually began to fill the
vacuum. The counterfeiters know they have the market for their fake
products because the middle-class have an insatiable appetite for
everything imported. Many of the displaced middle-class to sustain
their vice resorted to buying good imitations because imported ones
have been imprinted deep into their consciousness. The manufactures of
counterfeit products have for their market not the laborers, the
farmers, and the downtrodden, but the miseducated middle-class.
Although a risky business, it was worth the risk because their fake
products commanded higher value than the ordinary branded local
products, and much lower than the genuine ones.
Even in the US, an increasing number of their own middle-class are
patronizing counterfeit products as they either lost their job due to
outsourcing or they could no longer afford spending money on luxurious
products. To compensate this creeping danger of losing in their own
turf, many industries have relocated their production to China, India,
Mexico and other countries in Southeast Asia in a bid to lower the cost
of production, but they always end up losing the employment of their
own people.
The strategy has mostly benefited China, although it has not succeeded
in curbing the multibillion dollar industry that has become a curse
where there is no way the globalists can escape the economic black hole
that is now devouring the very empire they sought to establish.
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- the negative side of globalization
- From: ron calderon
- the negative side of globalization
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