Anti-globalists: Why they’re wrong
(2016)Description
This is an incredibly naive article from TE. Many of the statistics used are used selectively or even suggest the opposite conclusion if examined in greater detail.
For example: "the vast improvement in global living standards" quoted is true up to 1980 and is a false statement afterwords - the median income in most rich countries has been essentially falling since 1980. It means little if GDP per capita is rising if the average person is poorer than 36 years ago.
Another example: "Perhaps a fifth of the 6m or so net job losses in American manufacturing between 1999 and 2011 stemmed from Chinese competition". Does it matter if it stemmed from Chinese competition or from other conditions associated with free trade?
Worst of all, these arguments do not take the ecological externalities of current policy into account at all!
Free trade is not bad in and of itself, but it's current incarnation is just part of a greater continuum of policies that are creating gigantic global incumbents that are imposing terms on the consumer, buying political power and creating a race-to-the-bottom for workers (why else would there be more unemployment, part-time work and inequality?).
The actual, accepted statistics stand in stark contrast to this article: GDP is increasing but the median income is decreasing; corporate profits are at record highs, but consumer's savings are at record lows. Worst of all, environmental destruction is continuing unmitigated and even accelerating, with corporations actually lobbying to shut down any technical innovations that threaten their advantage.
Current economic policies worked well for a maximum of 30 years, but in recent times, they have become an abject failure. Worst of all, they have lead to an almost complete sell-out of democracy and horrendous destruction of our finite planet. Free-trade has acted as a multiplier for this effect. No thanks, TE.