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Globalization, Inequality and the New Serfdom


MahaBarbara (Great Barbara) has a great post over at the Mahablog, on the road to serfdom, which reminds me of what Oldman used to call "The New Feudalism". I'm going to pick a small nit and launch a digression, however...

People are afraid because the systems that sustained the American middle class for many decades are breaking down. This breakdown is partly the result of new stresses, such as globalization, but in many cases the systems deliberately are being dismantled by the Right. The steady erosion of middle class quality of life is not a matter of laziness or lack of virtue or even bad luck. But our political and business elites address our concerns as if we were children fearing monsters under our beds.

Globalization is often presented as "from on high" - a natural event somehow unconnected to policy. Nonsense. It was aided and abetted, for sure, by telecom advances and infotech, but they weren't necessary, by any means. The great (even greater than today) globalized period of the late 19th century did just fine without such technology. Even in intellectual property , the area most effected, the situation eerily echoes that of the late 19th century (except then it was Britain trying to enforce IP laws while America pretended, sometimes, to enforce them, and now it's America trying to enforce them... while China pretends, sometimes, to enforce them.)

Globalization and inequality, while they had some basis in economic history (the oil shock and stagflation had to be dealth with, but the American solution and the European solution were rather different and lead to different places) were and are a matter of deliberate government policy. Since they were deliberate, they can be undone. Unfortunately, since so much damage has been done, the cure is going to be bloody painful; and odds are we won't attempt it till we're on the gurney, damn near seeing the light and willing to let the surgeon do anything... including, gulp, horrible things like strongly progressive taxation; either real free trade or retaliatory protection against dumpers like the Japanese and Chinese; real capital flows controls that effectively shut down currency speculation (not currency trade, but speculation; and real significant trust-busting.

Till then, we're just seeing how long we can keep this bucket from hitting bottom.


Ian Welsh September 4, 2007 - 6:21am
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Globalization

The neocons are not pushing globalization or they would not be so opposed to people coming and going across state boundries. They are interested in destroying the middle class (think Alexander Hamilton or Andrew Carnegie) so that people will be dependent on the super-rich for everything. They are interested in rule by the wealthy, and an independent middle class would stop that. If in the long run this would also destroy the economy that is ok, because it is not how rich they are in an absolute scale, but how rich-- and powerful-- they are compared to their peons.

Blaze1 September 4, 2007 - 8:06am
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Globalization in the sense

Globalization in the sense of growing interconnectedness of economies arising from global commerce requires global solutions to social and political challenges as well, is underway and has been since the beginning of the Industrial Age. The question is the type of solutions that will predominate. We are now seeing either the cresting of imperialism, colonialism and economic liberalism -- or not. So far, the imperialists are winning, and modern history is the story of failed empires and rising new ones.

The big struggle developing is whether the US can maintain hegemony and call the shots -- or not. There is a coalition assembling against this bold move on the part of the US ruling elite. However, the Us ruling elite has already served notice that it will "preempt" any serious competition. Iraq has called that ability into question when "shock and awe" failed to do the trick of beating the populace into submission, as expected. So the next move will likely be to "show force" by bombing Iran back into the Stone Age. The excuse of 9/11 allowed the ruling elite to put in place a "lock down" control system domestically to stifle opposition. All that's required is a false flag op to institute martial law. In the meantime, internal intelligence gathering is identifying the "problem elements" to be neutralized.

The struggle in the Dem party is between Establishment corporatists in league with the ruling elite to perpetuate the status quo and the progressives challenging them. While the the deck is stacked in favor of the elite, circumstances are providing an opportunity for progressive reformers, as it becomes clearer and clearer that the status quo isn't working for the middle class, who, in reality, hold the actual power, since it is they who drive the global economy by providing consumption. Can the middle class unite and throw off its chains -- or will it continue to be deluded and co-opted by the ruling class? This is the question that is now being decided.

The coming US elections will tell a lot about the developing direction. So far, Iraq is undermining the goals of the ruling elite in the pursuit of ME dominance and oil reserves. However, while the poll numbers suggest that the public is moving away from the position of the elite, the intensity is not yet sufficient to be worrisome to them. On the other hand, if the economy tanks, the situation will be different. So look to the Fed and other CB's to inflate.

tjfxh September 4, 2007 - 9:28am
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There have been very

There have been very distinct periods even since industrialization.. As a percentage of economic activity, the late 19th century was more interconnected even than we are today.

Agreed with the rest in general. The CBs are already massively inflating, as the yield curves indicate and there appears to be no plan to sterilize the money they just threw into circulation.

Unfortunately for the US elites, they're delusional about their own power. So used to dealing in rigged games internally that they no longer understand how to deal with people who refuse to play by rigged rules. The Heritage study on overcoming economic effects of an Iran war is a good case study, which I'll put something up on later.

Ian Welsh September 4, 2007 - 4:31pm
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The Rich need to reflect on

The Rich need to reflect on what hapens when the middle class have nothing to loose (aka the French Revolution). Consumer (Middle Class) spending is 60% or more of the US GDP.

They'd need to remove gun rights and supress the populace (Britain in the 18th & 19th centuries).

Synoia September 4, 2007 - 10:54am
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