Laws against globalization.... 2918

Kamal R. Prasad

As one who supports globalization I will say the WTO doesn't seem to be fair to the US. It seems to rule against the US at nearly every turn. I don't understand why other countries don't have to open their markets to the extent we have had to open ours. I probably never will because the WTO isn't an open organization.

We know that over time standards of living will have to equalize. The problem is today's US workers will see little benefit from world trade. The US economy is still the driving force of the world's economy and the US economy is based upon labor being consumers. If the US labor force is destroyed so will be the world's economy.

It is well and good that the majority of the benefits from globalization goes to the developing nations as long as it goes to the laborers in rather than the rulers of those nations. At some point the US will have to draw a line and say that while the benefits may primarily acrue elsewhere it must be limited to the benefits of the developing world economies and not feed off of losses of the US laborers or the world economy will implode and there will be no benefits to globalization.

For too long US labor has benefited from the exploitation of cheap labor elsewhere. That cannot continue. It is immoral. None the less, it will take some time for the world economy to develop and until it does US labor cannot remain the driving force unless it is allowed some protection within its economy for its own labor.

Clearly it doesn't matter if the world economy is driven by the consumption of 300,000,000 people in the US or equal consumption by several billion people elsewhere. What matters is that the economy is driven by the individual choices of the peoeple and not by the choices of their nations' leaders. A market economy cannot serve its purpose if it doesn't signal the needs of the people. This is a balancing act between maintaining a viable market economy where it exists while developing market economies elsewhere.