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Governments grapple with globalisation backlash

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“The true bogeymen are the rent-seekers who have captured so much of our government. The inequality that they have wrought is the inequality that needs to be eliminated,” he said, citing as an example bankers who seek looser regulation and then lobby governments for taxpayer money if their banks fail.

It's a pretty good summary of what Marx said would happen. Perhaps, in the year of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the selfish and never-satisfied capitalist class might want to make sure they don't suffer the fate he predicted/recommended.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

"You need standard labor practices...."

I agree, but that's incompatible with globalization. Globalization is underpinned by such things as Chinese workers earning 30 dollars for spending 10 hours a day assembling iphones and full-time Walmart workers in America forced to rely on food stamps so they can feed their families. Where do you think the Davos elite get their billions?

We're talking supply side (trickle down) economics on steroids. Workers' rights have no place. Thankfully, a paradigm shift seems to be in the offing.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

ah yes, the cancer people. Eliminate the cancer

Time to pay back the public for all their plundering

Ratios are the best way so it's not a specific money value but a person value. For example. Saying that no CEO or employee can be more than 100 times the worth of the lowest employee is one. This stems from the fact that this was the case in the 1970's, back when single income families could buy a house and two cars.

Extend this to a company that has a 1000 times limit, and the funds go back to the public realm, to pay for the catastrophic illnesses crushing nations, more trained staff and more hospitals, roads, electric transportation, research, education etc etc. If bailouts occur the public owns the asset. You can't be a recipient of a public bailout and still be a private business. Nationalize the losers. Sell off the winners.

Thus no one is put out, everyone benefits, and enterprise is rewarded. It's attenuated and excess put back to help society improve

This would reduce crime, disease, inequity, and really improve our baseball teams

It keeps capitalism as the driving force, but adds social equality as a break on the excesses. The two can then keep each other in check

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Globalization has let to an increased disparity between rich and poor. It has also allowed for the devaluation of labor, primarily by large corporations "offshoring" production to where labor is cheaper.

Globalization has led to the situation described in the article below where now 8 men are is rich as half of the world.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_DAVOS_INEQUALITY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-01-15-19-02-51

The gap between rich and poor has increased regardless of which flavor of the month (political party) is in power.

The so called elite look down on us lowly "useless eaters" (as Ted Turner once said) and could care less about the plight of the average worker. The population of the developed world is catching on to the game and is starting to get pissed.

The end result in the pendulum swings so far that in the U.S. is someone as unqualified as Trump can get elected President.

The world is waking up to the fact that the "elite: in power are no smarter than the average person, they are just infinitely more evil and those currently in positions of power do not like it one bit.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Globalization is the story of how Americans buy so much stuffs from China, Japan, Korea that these three countries can now buy American companies with the dollars they got through selling anything from useless plastic toys, exploding phones, to exploding airbags. It's a pretty amazing setup.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Like I have been harping about for years here, the elite have been KILLING the Golden Goose(middle classes & poor) for a good 3+decades now!! SUCKING up most of the profits while leaving wages pretty stagnant for decades!

What is called the Minimum Wage should now be called what it became about 20+yrs ago, & that's a POVERTY Wage!

The elites have been allowed to be super greedy, THEY are a big reason why trump got elected. Govts so far have aided and abetted big biz's pilfering.

Globalization was a cock & bull story wrt to poor & middle classes in the developed countries, yes it DID create & help pull lots out of poverty in the 3rd world, BUT it is & continues to push people in the developed word DOWNWARDS.

Meanwhile a few have made off the bandits. Its way past time to rectify this, but it is now such an undertaking that I am afraid some HELL will be breaking out, witness the milder versions of Brexit & trump( or will it!)

If this unbridled greed continues heaven help us!! There will be HELL to pay!

Note: I don't want this but I can see it happeing!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

globalization can work if it is implemented correctly. First of all, if you are going to have a FTA, certain things need to be in place for it to work.

You cannot have a discrepancy in currency. In order to have a fair FTA, the parties involved must have a common currency to avoid an unfair advantage by the county with the weaker currency. This wil also help to stave off a currency war like we are starting to see today.

You need standard labor practices that are implemented and enforced within all parties to the FTA. These standard labor practices should be designed to improve people's quality of life, not diminish it. A standard minimum wage, standard number of hours, standard working conditions and workers' rights must be observed by all parties included in the FTA.

A standard tax system is also required to make sure that companies and governments alike do take advantage of the tax system of one country over the other.

There must be an open borders policy between any two nations that wish to engage in free trade. This permits citizens of any country who have lost their jobs in their own home country due to the FTA to seek employment in another country which is a signatory to the FTA. If the flow of goods and services will go unhindered, so too should the labor force to ensure fairness.

Free trade and globalization can be great things. They can provide prosperity and wealth, prevent war and strife, diminish racism and cultural misunderstanding, and generally promote social concern and discourse as well as the free exchange of ideas, goods, and services. The thing is, without the above 4 conditions in place, globalization becomes a tool by which the rich exploit the poor and by which the middle class is wiped out.

you reap what you sow.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

so many people are becoming displaced with technology which is no longer being used to benefit humanity but to replace it, that a Universal Basic Income for all will be required just to live. Again if ratios are used then rich people will have to be satisfied to be 100 times more rich than the lowest paid. 100 or less. That ratio can always go down, just never up again. Anything more disrupts society.

Ontario prevaricating on a Basic Income. We already know it works from experiments in Manitoba in the 70's. As there is an election year in 2018 here I'm cynically thinking it'll be implemented in a small scale just in time for the election. Finland probably going to have a real one sooner.

Of course those that support an unfair system will protest. But fairness must be the basis of society. And by process of the Ponzi pyramid, there are fewer of them than the rest of us

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I agree, but that's incompatible with globalization.

Its not inherently. It can work. The problem is that globalization was started by vested interests for completely selfish reasons, not for true globalization. But the idea itself is not wrong. only the greed behind the motives of the people who launched it. It needs to be reset, not retired.

We're talking supply side (trickle down) economics on steroids

true.

Sounds a bit like communism, or at least a pseudo-Scandinavian Socialism. Which without an incredible tax burden will trul lead to the demise of that nation state.

sorry. I don't buy that argument.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Aly RustomJAN. 16, 2017 - 10:09AM JST globalization can work if it is implemented correctly. First of all, if you are going to have a FTA, certain things need to be in place for it to work. You cannot have a discrepancy in currency. In order to have a fair FTA, the parties involved must have a common currency to avoid an unfair advantage by the county with the weaker currency. This wil also help to stave off a currency war like we are starting to see today. You need standard labor practices that are implemented and enforced within all parties to the FTA. These standard labor practices should be designed to improve people's quality of life, not diminish it. A standard minimum wage, standard number of hours, standard working conditions and workers' rights must be observed by all parties included in the FTA. A standard tax system is also required to make sure that companies and governments alike do take advantage of the tax system of one country over the other. There must be an open borders policy between any two nations that wish to engage in free trade. This permits citizens of any country who have lost their jobs in their own home country due to the FTA to seek employment in another country which is a signatory to the FTA. If the flow of goods and services will go unhindered, so too should the labor force to ensure fairness. Free trade and globalization can be great things. They can provide prosperity and wealth, prevent war and strife, diminish racism and cultural misunderstanding, and generally promote social concern and discourse as well as the free exchange of ideas, goods, and services. The thing is, without the above 4 conditions in place, globalization becomes a tool by which the rich exploit the poor and by which the middle class is wiped out. you reap what you sow.

Sounds a bit like communism, or at least a pseudo-Scandinavian Socialism. Which without an incredible tax burden will trul lead to the demise of that nation state.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

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