David Burnam:
>The problem with free trade is not prosperity, although some few are
>becoming enormously prosperous, but in fact impoverishment of the majority,
>and of the planet itself. The GNP is a poor measure of prosperity, for while
>billionaires are being created in unprecedented numbers, the numbers in
>poverty are also increasing apace, ... etc. etc. ...
>We are seeing with globalization of trade a rapid
>increase in the gap between rich and poor.
>
>If you happen to be benefitting from the current situation, it's difficult
>to imagine anyone who isn't. Perhaps Bath isn't the place to do it, but have
>a look around you, Keith, at the increasing numbers of beggars on the
>streets. They didn't appear because we are more prosperous.
I'm not quite sure of what to make of this, but it strikes me as being a
supreme example of assigning a single cause to a multi-faceted problem.
Many populations have benefitted from increased trade. Others have not -
for example, Sub-Saharan Africa. Natural resources are being exported from
some Sub-Saharan countries and populations are being exploited and
impoverished, but these populations have also faced other problems:
depletion of soils, corrupt governments, civil wars, and inter-ethnic
genocide. Is it the fact that they are hooked into trading loops that is
the primary problem? Or is it that they are governed so ineffectively that
large companies like Shell Oil can move in and walk all over them?
When it comes to world poverty, where is the fault? Is it free trade or the
monopolization of such trade? Or is it the incompetence and corruption of
heads of governments willing to play along with monopolists and despoilers
as long as they get their cut? Or is it the fact that various ethnic
groups, ideologues or religious zealots simply cannot get along and want to
cleanse the world of each other and, in so doing, totally disrupt everything
that goes into making life liveable and normal? Or is it the fact that
women are repressed and children cannot get to school and therefore can
never learn the skills that would enable a better and more productive life?
I would suggest that it is a combination of all of these things, and many
more. But it is nothing short of downright silly to lay it all on the fact
that I want to exchange something of value with someone living in some other
part of the world so that we can both get more of what we want.
Ed Weick
