Monday, April 23, 2007

10 MILLION Good Jobs, Gone in 10 Years: Globalism's Unrefusable Offer

A Heretic Stalks The Faithful In The "Church of Free Trade" (from alternet.org)
The church of global free trade, which rules American politics with infallible pretensions, may have finally met its Martin Luther. An unlikely dissenter has come forward with a revised understanding of globalization that argues for thorough reformation. This man knows the global trading system from the inside because he is a respected veteran of multinational business. His ideas contain an explosive message: that what established authorities teach Americans about global trade is simply wrong -- disastrously wrong for the United States...

"The offer that many Asian countries will give to American companies is essentially this: 'Come over here and enhance our GDP. If you are here our people will be building disk drives, for example, instead of something less productive. In return, we'll help you with the investment, with taxes, maybe even with wages. We'll make sure you make a profit.' This works for both sides: the American company gets profits, the host country gets GDP. However, there is another effect beyond the benefits for those two parties -- high-value-added jobs leave the U.S."
Corporations have all the rights of individual citizens, and none of the responsibilities. Globalism exacerbates the inherent conflict between citizenship and profit. Why are multinational corporations allowed--fuck they're encouraged--to undercut the 'national interest' by outsourcing good jobs and impoverishing US citizens, yet are still permitted the privileges of their 'national' identity?

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