Globalization’s losers: The middle-class, the poor and Western capitalism

Globalization’s losers: The middle-class, the poor and Western capitalism

For the past two decades wages in the world’s leading democracies have stagnated while inequality has risen as a result of globalization shifting economic vitality from the developed to the developing world.

In the U.S. the average household income has fallen by over ten percent over the past ten years while the wealth gap has widened. According to Charles Kupchan, professor of International Affairs at Georgetown, the U.S. is now “the most unequal country in the industrialized world.” Kupchan explains the root causes of the problem in a recent Foreign Affairs piece:

The primary source of the declining fortunes of the American worker is global competition; jobs have been heading overseas. In addition, many of the most competitive companies in the digital economy do not have long coattails. Facebook’s estimated value is around $70 billion, and it employs roughly 2,000 workers; compare this with General Motors, which is valued at $35 billion and has 77,000 employees in the United States and 208,000 worldwide. The wealth of the United States’ cutting-edge companies is not trickling down to the middle class.


Examiner.com

Average US household incomes have dropped by more than 10% in the last 10 years. Yet the super rich have got much richer.

The global labour force has quadrupled since the 1980s due to China opening up and the global population explosion.

Western people now have to directly compete against Chinese and Indian workers. Which would be fine if the West didn't close factories in the West and export them to cheap labour third world countries. How can that be anything but a disaster for the working and middle class in the West?

Ordinary Western people are destined to become poorer and poorer under globalisation, while the super rich will only become richer.

Why is no political party facing up to what is already happening?

Is it because the politians have been bought and paid for with the super riches money?

Originally posted by ollncasino

Average US household incomes have dropped by more than 10% in the last 10 years. Yet the super rich have got much richer.

This seems to indicate that the average minus the super-rich, has declined by much more than 10%..perhaps double that or greater in the same time period.

Ordinary Western people are destined to become poorer and poorer under globalisation, while the super rich will only become richer.

Why is no political party facing up to what is already happening?

Is it because the politians have been bought and paid for with the super riches money?

You answered your own question. The super rich are either trying to maximize profits from corporations that they have a lot of shares in, else has a moral/ideological stance in play.

The thing is that if this does play out without a major, unstoppable collapse of civilization as a whole, a reorganization can be at hand. We can use the chaos to create a more integral world. This seems to be in the works at a higher level than mere politician.

Most people on this site fear this, but it seems inevitable, and quite necessary. It's an unfortunate reality that the weakest will perish or suffer immensely throughout the process, but there must be pressures to shape up our species. We have become quite unfit in modern times.

Originally posted by ollncasino


Why is no political party facing up to what is already happening?

Is it because the politians have been bought and paid for with the super riches money?

With reports coming at staggering rates, almost daily, confirming that our nations middle-class is quickly becoming extinct, showing that the quality of life for non-wealthy Americans is sinking fast, along with the "American dream" now being dead, one party's ONLY concern through all of this is...

...codling the wealthy...

While everything is CRASHING DOWN for the HARDEST working, most struggling, lowest quality of life lower classes, the Republican demonstrate OVER AND OVER again that their ONLY CONCERN is for the SUPER wealthy. If helping the SUPER wealthy comes at the expense of everyone else, they have shown that they have NO guilt in doing so.

Big money and bribes take precedence over We The People.

Any American citizen who is NOT super wealthy and votes Republican needs to have their HEAD EXAMINED.

And for the SUPER wealthy who only vote for those who help them while SCREWING the rest of us, you will get your KARMA one day.

Today's Republicans are a DISASTER for this country and its citizens.

Originally posted by unityemissions
This seems to indicate that the average minus the super-rich, has declined by much more than 10%..perhaps double that or greater in the same time period.

Good point.

Yet economists and politicians sing the praises of globalisation.

The same economists who totally failed to see the biggest banking collapse coming and the politicians who have mostly never worked an honest day in their life.

reply to post by unityemissions

We can use the chaos to create a more integral world

Oh, we have a New World Order propagandist..... nice.... another one it seems.

Most people on this site fear this, but it seems inevitable, and quite necessary. It's an unfortunate reality that the weakest will perish or suffer immensely throughout the process, but there must be pressures to shape up our species. We have become quite unfit in modern times.

And I suppose that you think being a parasite off of the labours of those who actually do the work, and robbing them of their labours, and the fruits of such.... is a sign of strength, eh?

Nice.

You've been made.

Yeah but i got an xbox and an ipod

So really am i losing? I might no be able to go out and spend lots of money on new toys... but the ones i got are infinitly interesting.

Im looking forward to our decades pictures of unemplyment lines with everyone looking at their smart phones surfing the internet and watching hulu while they wait.

Originally posted by ErtaiNaGia
reply to post by unityemissions

 

And I suppose that you think being a parasite off of the labours of those who actually do the work, and robbing them of their labours, and the fruits of such.... is a sign of strength, eh?

How did you get that out of anything I wrote is beyond me.

Nice.

You've been made.

You've been outed as a fool.


...let me add this:

I do a variety of jobs for the monies. Today I digged for a few hours in the Texas heat, then went to supervise a crew on another job for a while...I do my fair share...but, do you think a philosopher plays a role in shaping the society, or helping humanity?? It may be more subtle than digging a ditch, but I sure as hell do. Same goes for the artist, and social engineers out there. Am I okay that some people are paid outrages sums for s little contribution? Nah, not really, but I'm seeing it a bit different than you are, apparently.

Whether the parasites are aware of it or not (and I don't think the social engineers are truly parasitic), they are actually not even so..they are acting in symbiosis with the whole of the rest of us. They create pressures, with intent or not, to drive the best of us to excel, and push out those who are least able.

I'm just a grunt, but I can see it quite clearly.

The thread title is deeply flawed.

Western capitalism is most definitely not the loser of globalization. Western business and prosperity is. It is western capitalism and only western capitalism that is the sole creator of globalization in the unfettered pursuit of profit.

When we can control capitalism with protectionist economic policies (paleoconservatism), globalization will end. Of course, people aren't waking up to that fact. The majority of people think the best way out of this problem is to elect either Paul, Obama or Romney, depending on who you ask. None of these have a protectionist bone in their body and although there are subtle differences, the end result is the same. The economic ideology of all three leads to further destruction. A neoliberal libertarian (goodbye financial borders and regulation), a socialist who is only interested in social engineering and spending (look what that did to Europe), and a wall street venture capitalist (supported by the same company, goldman sachs, that is destroying the world economy).

When the masses place their trust in these people they will deserve the end that is coming.

reply to post by SteveR

When we can control capitalism with protectionist economic policies (paleoconservatism), globalization will end. Of course, people aren't waking up to that fact. The majority of people think the best way out of this problem is to elect either Paul, Obama or Romney, depending on who you ask. None of these have a protectionist bone in their body and although there are subtle differences, the end result is the same. The economic ideology of all three leads to further destruction.

Couldn't agree more. Every country needs a fair trade policy to fit their own economic interests. If country does not protect it's own citizens wages, jobs, and the businesses that employ those people.

Free trade "might" work if everyone country in the world demanded a good standard of living for it's citizens. That is not the case however, nor will it likely ever be.

It's those who defend free trade that are the same one's that defend corporations corrupting our government.