[Comrade Ogilvy]

Many people oppose globalization.

I have always liked the idea that the world shold be united, in a liberal way, wich we had direct democracy.
The conservatives want globalization. Why?
Would the globalization remove liberal values? Why and how?
Who benefit globalization?
What are the downfalls of globalization?

[The Outspoken]

Many people oppose globalization.

For many different, and sometimes opposing, reasons.

I have always liked the idea that the world shold be united, in a liberal way, wich we had direct democracy.

I already posted somewhere... let me see where... I thikn it was in the Economics forum, responding to a post about socialism, outlining the four perfect forms of government that are unachievable by humans. A direct democracy is one of them.

It is physically impossible for a government over a certain size to run a direct democracy.

The conservatives want globalization. Why?

The conservatives generally want corporate globalization, not governmental.

Would the globalization remove liberal values? Why and how?

I doubt any globalization would remove many liberal "values", (I use the term loosely when talking about a system of values that is situational or reletive), as the US is generally one of the only things keeping the world from turning entirely liberal. We are an extremily conservative nation compared to others, of course, most of these others are socialist, so there you go.

Who benefit globalization?

The Oligarchy that runs it, and that's about it.

What are the downfalls of globalization?

One word: coruption.

[redcarpet]

Globalisation has, unfortunately, been hijacked by private multi-national corporations & excessively wealthy individuals to further exploit the earth & mankind.

[Thin Spirits]

Would a global government, or indeed a collection of multinational corporations be much different, or worse than the current state-based system?

[Edric O]

In general, a form of government is good or bad depending on how much influence the people have over their government. Democracies are also always better than dictatorships because in a democracy the government must answer to the people

Now, the problem with giving political power to corporations (either officially or unofficially by allowing them to buy off politicians) is that corporations are undemocratic organizations. They do not answer to the people. If the world was governed by a collection of multinational corporations, we would be living in a 1984-style dictatorship.

[Y2A]

I think that we must all agree that globalization is inevitable and is a much better solution then nationalism or communism. But the fact remains that globalization does create corruption and many times strips third world workers of there rights. There are many examples of this, just look at the countless trade unionist slaughtered due to corporations such as the United Fruit Company. But the solution to this will not be abolishing it like some left-wing extremist purpose but rather having a form of regulated capitalism so that these corporations do not take advantage and exploit these workers. Stopping globalization all together would just increase unemployment in these countries and hurt already struggling economies. The problem is that we need an international body to insure that workers rights are not being stripped from them.

[emp]

You have to define globalization.

IMF style globalization - "Privatize everything as fast as possible. Get rid of social safety net. Get rid of business regulations. Get rid of workers rights. Increase "workpool flexibility". (Get rid of job security.) Less environmental regulation.

World Bank - Much like the IMF but not quite as radically free market.

WTO style globalization - unfair trade agreements in favor of the US who essentially controls the WTO

But then some might point to China as being a globalization success story. To whatever degree they are a success (went from 270 million to only 100 million living on less than one dollar a day) it should be pointed out that they haven't remotely been partaking of IMF style globalization. They have had huge government intervention throughout while very slowly opening up this or that market as they determine it can survive.

But IMF style globalization dominates. And only 6 nations have improved substantially in the 1960 to 1998 time period. Of those 6, Bostwana refused to have anything to do with the IMF, as did Malaysia. South Korea and Taiwan were propped up by the US as a barrier to communism. That leaves only Hong Kong and Singapore.....

Meanwhile 70 nations have gotten substantially worse ecnomically.
In Mexico the number living in poverty increased from 30 to 40 million after NAFTA. Etc, etc.

IMF style globalization along with World Bank, WTO, GATT, NAFTA, FTAA is the most censored story in the mainstream media. This is as expected. In the opinion of the extremely rich, economic matters are something best left to the extremely rich.

When mainstream media talks about globalization at all, they talk either of violent protest or they stick to the ridiculously vague crap like that of Thomas Friedman. They do not want you to know what is actually going on. Greg Palast http://www.gregpalast.com/ reporting on the privatization of water (such companies have their eyes on the US next) is pretty much censored in the US. Nobel Prize winner and former World Bank Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz gets the same sort of treatment.

But we get plenty of Thomas Friedman:
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/maxpages/fac ... iedman.htm

[emp]

Here's a bunch of globalization links for anyone who wants to get knowledgeable.

7. Globalization sites
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/maxpages/fac ... 3links.htm
This site has a long list of globalization sites.

http://www.gatt.org
"anti-globalization" site that plays jokes on people. Little to no actual news content.

http://globalresearch.ca/
Sorry, not impressed.

http://www.globalexchange.org/
Has pretty good background info on various globalization entities. (IMF, WB, FTAA, etc.)

http://www.theyesmen.org
progressives undercover exposing corporate evil

[Freedom]

The conservatives want globalization. Why?

Not all of us.

[TROI]

I like you freedom... apart from the whole Irish thing