We have recently witnessed a flurry of comment in the US on the long-running stagnation of wages. Many believe that the future livelihood of the "middle class" is also at risk.
Lou Dobbs of CNN, the labour groups' think-tank Economic Policy Institute and nearly all the Democrats newly elected to Congress believe that globalisation has much to do with the economic distress of the working and middle classes. Therefore they have coherence on their side when they want to lean on the door – even to close it – on trade with poor countries and occasionally on unskilled immigration from them.
Proponents of globalisation, however, find themselves in a politically implausible position: they typically skirt around and hence accept this "distributional" critique of globalisation – yet nonetheless propose that those adversely affected should accept globalisation but be aided so as to cope with their affliction in other ways.
As it happens, globalisation's supporters are on firmer ground than they fear. Examine the common arguments linking globalisation to the distributional distress and little survives.
See full Article (paid subscription required).
Posts
