Who’s afraid of a little globalization?
In the wake of the official Brexit I’ve begun to think a little more about the supposed underlying reasons of what compelled a segment of the UK population to vote to leave the EU.
Globalization seems to be a common underlying source of tension in the UK and the US and in the backlash to Liberal institutions the world over. The narrative seems to go something like this.
Elites in the business and political spheres have conspired to force everyday people into a world in which they are less in control of their everyday lives because the large forces of the global economy are conspiring against them. Weather it be immigrants taking benefits that should be reserved for citizens or large companies engaged in ever more ruthless practices to squeeze out small-family run business’ as they too are squeezed to compete on an international level.
I have found it interesting however, that so many people on the right, or at least people who don’t mind voting for right-wing authoritarian populists, like Trump, Boris, or Bolsonaro have found traction with this line of thinking.
This has always been just the slightest bit confusing to me, because if one is a big believer in capitalism and free-enterprise isn’t this exactly what you want?
here is an easy to find YouTube video of conservative hero’s and free-market fanboys Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush discussing how not only is immigration (legal or otherwise) beneficial to the economy but that undocumented immigrants should receive government benefits while they live and work in the United States. The way I was taught free-market economics is that the free-flow of people and goods increases productivity and increases the efficient use of resources, is that all of a sudden not the case? Could it be that free-trade mainly benefits those at the top and that the majority of workers and small business are left out?
Last year I interviewed a representative of a business group, basically a state-wide chamber-of-commerce, who insisted that companies actually want more immigration currently, and that there are positions going unfulfilled in a tight labour market.
Conversely labor-organizer and Chicano civil-rights leader Cesar Chavez actually advocated for tougher border controls as a way to increase the power of US labor unions and to prevent a glut of labor that would allow the farm-owners to pay workers less and undercut the power of unions. So this seems to be at odds with pure-market capitalism so many on the right claim they love, and it seems to come from a somewhat socialistic worldview that so many Trump supporters and conservatives claim that they abhor, and yet curiously embrace.
The oft quoted statistic as that nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants live and work in the United States. It seems to me that American society has benefited from the labor these people provide and now seems ready to kick them to the curb. For years these people have grown our food, cut our yards, built our buildings, looked out for our children, cooked our meals, and fought in our wars. All the while being paid less than what native born citizens would have been paid and receiving no political voice. Didn’t I hear somewhere once something about “no taxation without representation”? Could you perhaps call the undocumented community in the US and underclass?
I can understand why some might feel uncomfortable about the globalized way or society seems to be heading. And yet we have lived in a globalized society since 1571 when Spanish treasure ships left Acapulco leaden with New World silver heading for Manila harbor and then on to the trading ports of Ming dynasty China.
It seems to me that punishing the least well off in the system all the while profiting from them is foolish way to address problems of globalization. And I ask anyone who is interested them, What is To be Done?