Letters to the Editor

A pro-globalization minifesto The Inuit don't want to be footnotes of the global economy. But that doesn't mean they have to be anti-globalization. Andrew Leonard [2005-12-08]

• Semantic diffculty

  I'm pro-globe, but "globalization" is an economic term used by the neoliberals to reinstitute a low-wage labor policy. You know, the kind defeated by Lincoln, FDR, and every other modern president until the Restoration began with the election of Reagan. From Teddy Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter, no president was going to stand up and say, I want to lower wages so the international coupon-cutters can hire people cheap and sell the crap in big Wal-Marts.

  In the name of globalization, we have made our own economy into a stunted, neocon dwarf, with no steel, no auto, no ability to manufacture anything. We do, however, have the corner on the world market on patent attorneys and international tax-avoidance consultants.

  We were financed by more than 100 years of tariffs on imports, which made us into an independent powerhouse. I don't know how to put Humpty back together again, but the USA of globalization is a 98-pound weakling with very tough bodyguards, not the real Goliath we were at the beginning of the previous century.

  -- Jim H
  [Read Jim H's other letters]
  Permalink Flag Thursday, December 8, 2005 02:50 PM
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