I was tear-gassed protesting free trade. Now that Trump’s tariffs may signal the beginning of the end of globalization, do I get to say, “I told you so?"
Globalization IS a good thing. Many people didn’t like globalization and free trade because while being a huge productivity boost overall it was also a large wealth transfer to many of the poorest nations on Earth. And they used this math to make some very convincing arguments that we were “falling behind” and “living standards were declining” and maybe in some cases the speed of that wealth transfer did go too far. But mostly what was really happening was simply that other countries were catching up and this is not a bad thing unless you consider those people sub-human.
I don’t consider people in other countries sub-human so I think our goal should be to make the entire world a nice and equitable place to live for everybody, because having a nice world that everyone can live in benefits us personally and the rising tide will lift all boats and we can finally start to put all this horror and war and injustice behind us and try to focus on things that actually improve our civilization together. This is not a zero sum game, we do not have to steal from the very poor to make our own poor richer, we can gradually fix the historical inequality to bring everybody up to the same level without causing too much stress to ourselves if we just adjust our expectations a little and frame it in the right way.
The thing that was actually bad about free trade was that some very non-democratic, non-free countries abused it, monopolized manufacturing of entire industries and bribed us with very cheap products about it so we didn’t mind very much. We let our enemies, actual enemies who abuse their own populations and want to destroy us and take everything in the world for themselves and abuse us too, use it against us. It’s not free trade that’s bad, it’s the tyrants running these evil despotic regimes that we are too lazy and peaceful to do anything about. They lied to us and pretended that they were being reasonably democratic and we knew they were sort of lying but we gave them a passing grade anyway and let them carry on. Nobody minds that they torture their own people or work them to death when they’re importing their nice cheap goods at a great price.
It seems like we hoped that if we provided them a good economy, freedom would follow. But that’s putting the cart before the horse. Freedom must come first, then economy can follow. By tolerating evil, by letting free trade support and provide for that evil, we allowed that evil to infect us and now we’re feeling the pain of what evil left unchecked will do to the world.
So now it’s time to prepare for a war to defeat evil once again, because we let it happen.
If you’re making an argument about efficiency, the massive inefficiency of hundreds of countries making redundant efforts and frequently failing, sometimes disastrously, far outweighs the cost of transportation of most things. Ships in particular are an incredibly efficient form of bulk transport and are likely only going to get more efficient. In theory, they could be completely wind powered – they used to be, and yes that would make it less reliable and much slower but we could manage that if we needed to. Shipping can easily go green, or at least much greener than it already is, it is simply a choice, and one that we should start to make soon.
But globalization is also about so much more than just financial efficiency and energy efficiency. Globalization interconnects countries. It makes them less likely to wage war. It generally encourages the harmonization of laws and governance, it forces us to work together to find a mutually acceptable path forward and that is the right path to be going down long-term. At least when it’s not abused. True global unity is going to become an essential requirement as our civilization moves into the solar system, we will already have more than enough problems up there without bringing our old problems from down here. This is not optional, this is a mandatory stepping stone into the only future that makes sense, the only future that seems like a bright one.
If you hate the inefficiency of transporting stuff globally, you should see how wasteful war is, and then you should imagine what it would be like on an interplanetary scale.
We are all one people, it’s time we start acting like it. Globalization is one of the essential steps in doing that. We cannot skip it.
Globalization IS a good thing. Many people didn’t like globalization and free trade because while being a huge productivity boost overall it was also a large wealth transfer to many of the poorest nations on Earth. And they used this math to make some very convincing arguments that we were “falling behind” and “living standards were declining” and maybe in some cases the speed of that wealth transfer did go too far. But mostly what was really happening was simply that other countries were catching up and this is not a bad thing unless you consider those people sub-human.
I don’t consider people in other countries sub-human so I think our goal should be to make the entire world a nice and equitable place to live for everybody, because having a nice world that everyone can live in benefits us personally and the rising tide will lift all boats and we can finally start to put all this horror and war and injustice behind us and try to focus on things that actually improve our civilization together. This is not a zero sum game, we do not have to steal from the very poor to make our own poor richer, we can gradually fix the historical inequality to bring everybody up to the same level without causing too much stress to ourselves if we just adjust our expectations a little and frame it in the right way.
The thing that was actually bad about free trade was that some very non-democratic, non-free countries abused it, monopolized manufacturing of entire industries and bribed us with very cheap products about it so we didn’t mind very much. We let our enemies, actual enemies who abuse their own populations and want to destroy us and take everything in the world for themselves and abuse us too, use it against us. It’s not free trade that’s bad, it’s the tyrants running these evil despotic regimes that we are too lazy and peaceful to do anything about. They lied to us and pretended that they were being reasonably democratic and we knew they were sort of lying but we gave them a passing grade anyway and let them carry on. Nobody minds that they torture their own people or work them to death when they’re importing their nice cheap goods at a great price.
It seems like we hoped that if we provided them a good economy, freedom would follow. But that’s putting the cart before the horse. Freedom must come first, then economy can follow. By tolerating evil, by letting free trade support and provide for that evil, we allowed that evil to infect us and now we’re feeling the pain of what evil left unchecked will do to the world.
So now it’s time to prepare for a war to defeat evil once again, because we let it happen.
Nope. If something can be produced locally, you would pay less transportation costs.
By definition, it’s less work to access goods and services that are closer, unless your country can’t produce it, then you outsource.
If you’re making an argument about efficiency, the massive inefficiency of hundreds of countries making redundant efforts and frequently failing, sometimes disastrously, far outweighs the cost of transportation of most things. Ships in particular are an incredibly efficient form of bulk transport and are likely only going to get more efficient. In theory, they could be completely wind powered – they used to be, and yes that would make it less reliable and much slower but we could manage that if we needed to. Shipping can easily go green, or at least much greener than it already is, it is simply a choice, and one that we should start to make soon.
But globalization is also about so much more than just financial efficiency and energy efficiency. Globalization interconnects countries. It makes them less likely to wage war. It generally encourages the harmonization of laws and governance, it forces us to work together to find a mutually acceptable path forward and that is the right path to be going down long-term. At least when it’s not abused. True global unity is going to become an essential requirement as our civilization moves into the solar system, we will already have more than enough problems up there without bringing our old problems from down here. This is not optional, this is a mandatory stepping stone into the only future that makes sense, the only future that seems like a bright one.
If you hate the inefficiency of transporting stuff globally, you should see how wasteful war is, and then you should imagine what it would be like on an interplanetary scale.
We are all one people, it’s time we start acting like it. Globalization is one of the essential steps in doing that. We cannot skip it.