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The Globalisation Myth why the protesters have got it wrong

Alan Shipman | 03.12.2003 16:35

Globalisation increases inequality, crushes dissent and subjugates democratically elected governments to the will of global capital. Right? Wrong. Global business can redistribute wealth, transfer technology and make the world work more effectively – for the benefit of all. The WTO, the IMF and others are the activists’ best hope for steering our panicked planet off the rocks of inequality, oppression and environment-eating technology

During the past 50 years the worldwide standard of living has increased far more than in the previous 500! The percentage of people in poverty in the world now is smaller than at any other time in world history. Free trade helps Third World countries by opening up western markets to Third World goods, so providing jobs and raising living standards in the Third World.

Free market capitalism and globalisation do not cause Third World poverty, infact it is in Third World countries which have embraced globalisation and the free market that wages and living standards are rising the fastest, such as China, Tiawan, Singapore, Latin America and Hong Kong.

Alan Shipman

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Globalisation cheerleaders

03.12.2003 20:12

I've heard this pitch so many times, I can reel it back from memory. It all sounds fantastic doesn't it? How could we have got it so very wrong?

But whenever I ask to see the numbers, the "free market" people get very cagey. They refer me to stats from one of the globalisation cheerleader societies, like the AEI, the Weekly Standard, WTO, IMF, etc. These are always curiously short on detail.

"During the past 50 years the worldwide standard of living has increased far more than in the previous 500!"
By what measure? What was the methodology used? And who was left out of the counting? Show me your numbers.

"The percentage of people in poverty in the world now is smaller than at any other time in world history."
By what measure? What was the methodology used? And who was left out of the counting? Show me your numbers.

Typically they will wave figures at you showing dramatic rises in Gross Domestic Product in Taiwan, Singapore, etc. This sounds great, until you try to work out who pocketed that rise in GDP. All the people of Taiwan, Singapore, etc.? No. A tiny minority that own the sweatshops, which the rest of the country work in for their whole miserable lives, under repressive anti-union laws, and zero chances of moving up for the average joe.

It's marketing bullshit. Check the numbers, and you'll see that globalisation is something that needs to be sold to a gullible public, by the tiny minority that really does benefit from it.

joe