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Globalization
Globalization has certainly has its upside. Corporate America has been all too eager to point out it's benefits to us as part of an inexhaustible supply of inexpensive goods. But what is the true price of all these goods? Is this an economy of the pennywise and pound foolish?
China, America's largest trading partner, has one of the lowest levels of productivity per unit of energy in the world. It takes about twice as much energy to produce the same amount of merchandize as it does in the United States. Coal is the primary source of energy in China. Last year, 5000 workers were killed mining coal. China is about to surpass the United States as being the world's number one carbon polluter.
Chinese workers may make some 15 cents an hour where Americans may make $15 an hour for the same work. Though China is a "people's republic", it's workers can't organize or strike for better wages. China may have the worst, large-scale industrial pollution in the world. It's citizens cannot safely protest or petition their government to clean up the mess. Environmental illness is a serious problem in China. So is child labor.
As an American consumer, it's hard to know much about the conditions in which the imported products you buy were manufactured. It's not just China, but many of the nations from which we import food and merchandise have unfair labor practices, poor human rights and virtually no environmental standards.
Globalization has permitted irresponsible American manufacturers to bypass long-fought for labor and environmental standards that were established here in the United States. Better paying American manufacturing jobs here are replaced by lower wage service sector jobs. In the process, our middle class is getting squeezed and our trade deficit is rising.
But perhaps the most serious of all the consequences is the impact this trade is having on the environment. The China connection has doubled or tripled the amount of global warming gases released for almost everything we buy. Twice as much energy is used to manufacture the goods. Then, they need to be shipped halfway around the world to get to the store in which you'll buy them. Then, you need to drive a longer distance to get to a big-box retailer where you can get them at a good price. Once there, you'll certainly be tempted to buy more than you would have — because the goods couldn't be made any cheaper if there were made by slave labor in the United States.
All this adds up to more and more global warming and pollution — and puts power in the hands of people who are callously taking advantage of the world's poor. And, as with sweatshops in the United States a century ago, globalization promoters rationalize inhumane working conditions as helping to "employ" the hungry.