Transcript globalization presentation draft

The Global Marketplace
What’s a Christian to think?
an attempt at a Christian view
about market globalization
Bruce Duggan
Nov 2011
informed opinion
an attempt at a Christian view
about market globalization
a disclaimer:
this isn’t a class
global trade
US$ equivalents
adjusted for inflation
$18 trillion
$12 trillion
$6 trillion
1950
1970
1990
2010
A Short Survey
1. When considering buying a good or product,
what characteristics do you prefer it to have?
local
known
small
hand-made
natural
global
unknown
big
machine-made
artificial
A Short Survey
2. Think of what you’ve consumed in the last 24
hours.
local
known
small
hand-made
natural
global
unknown
big
machine-made
artificial
Where do those goods or services fall on
these continuums?
A Short Survey
3. How close are your stated preferences to your
“GLOBALIST”
“LOCALIST”
actions?
local
known
small
hand-made
natural
global
unknown
big
machine-made
artificial
What are we to think?
proposed views:


we are oppressed
we are compelled
Proposed Views
we are oppressed
The author of Ephesians writes: ‘Our struggle is not against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the power of this dark world...’
This is the language the American and British governments
have used about terrorists, but…it is used more appropriately
of the structure of world trade, and especially of the MNCs
[Multi-National Corporations]…
Timothy Gorringe
Principalities & Powers: A Framework for Thinking about Globalization
2004
Proposed Views
we are oppressed
 and, simultaneously, we oppress
The world trade system is unjust….
Increased exports also lead to environmental destruction and
disintegration of communities….
Economic globalisation leads to structural violence…
World Council of Churches
Economic Globalization A Critical View and an Alternative Vision: Dossier
6
2001
Justice, Peace and Creation team, World Council of Churches Economic Globalization – A Critical View and an Alternative Vision Dossier 6
Proposed Views
we are oppressed
 and, simultaneously, we oppress
‘These people are trading in human misery. Elliott Associates
are picking over the bones of the Peruvian economy like a
pack vultures. It may be just business to them but to the
children of Peru it is school books, medicines and clean
water.’
This is the reality of globalization, the true nature of the global
market.
Gorringe
Proposed Views
we are oppressed
 and, simultaneously, we oppress
we are compelled
American demand for goods and services is not organic. That
is, the demands are not internally created by a consumer.…
[D]emands are created by advertisers and the "machinery for
consumer-demand creation" that benefit from increased
consumer spending.
John Kenneth Galbraith
The Affluent Society
1958
Proposed Views
we are compelled
Americans are beyond apologizing for their lifestyle of
scorched-earth consumerism….
Time was, decadence on this scale was something to fear….
But somehow….[w]e have decided not to avoid decadence
but to embrace it.
Harry Flood
“Manufacturing Desire”
Adbusters
2000
Proposed Views
we are compelled
I say that ‘consumerism’ is a piece of false consciousness,
and indeed a tool for our continued and growing enslavement.
Rupert Read
One World Column
2011
Proposed Views
we are compelled
Ideology is a process accomplished by the so-called thinker
consciously, indeed, but with a false consciousness. The real
motives impelling him remain unknown to him…
Friedrich Engels
Letter to Franz Mehring
1893
Proposed Views
we are compelled
The Story of Stuff 16min 18sec
Proposed Views
we are compelled
Proposed Views
we are oppressed
 and, simultaneously, we oppress
we are compelled
 manufactured desires
 false consciousness
Why do I disagree?
> flawed application of biblical texts
> “false consciousness” is a flawed idea
> globalization is not oppression
> flawed application of biblical texts
 Ephesians 6:12 isn’t about human institutions
 biblical texts don’t see global trade as wrong
> flawed application of biblical texts
 Ephesians 6:12 isn’t about human institutions
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this
darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the
heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12 NASB
> flawed application of biblical texts
 Ephesians 6:12 isn’t about human institutions
 biblical texts don’t see global trade as wrong
Solomon
Tyre
trade in luxuries
nard
purple cloth
grain
trade in necessities
Why do I disagree?
> flawed application of biblical texts
> “false consciousness” is a flawed idea
> globalization is not oppression
 benefits outweigh harms
Inflation-adjusted
world trade
$18 trillion
$12 trillion
$6 trillion
1950
1970
1990
2010
Inflation-adjusted
world trade
$18 trillion
$8,000
$6,000
$12 trillion
$4,000
$2,000
world GDP per person
$0
1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
$6 trillion
child survival to age 5
$8,000
100%
$6,000
75%
$4,000
50%
$2,000
world GDP per person
$0
1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
25%
child survival to age 5
life expectancy
75
$8,000
$6,000
50
$4,000
$2,000
world GDP per person
$0
1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
25
child survival to age 5
life expectancy
ratio of girls to boys enrolled in primary school
$8,000
100%
$6,000
75%
$4,000
$2,000
50%
world GDP per person
$0
1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
25%
world
$8,000
Canada
$6,000
Japan
$4,000
China
$2,000
India
Nigeria
$0
1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
$20,000
$18,000
$16,000
$14,000
$12,000
$10,000
South Korea
$8,000
$6,000
$4,000
$2,000
1950
North Korea
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
> flawed application of biblical texts
> “false consciousness” is a flawed idea
> globalization is not oppression
 benefits outweigh harms
• correlated with (and perhaps causally related to)
 wealth creation
 poverty reduction
 health improvements
 education improvements
The Pew Global Attitudes Project
Growing trade ties between countries are…
very good
somewhat good
objections
> globalization harms the poor
1.
2.
3.
the poor get poorer
child labour flourishes
globalization exacerbates inequality
> globalization is unsustainable
4.
won’t we hit a wall?
1. the poor get poorer?
% living on less than $2/day
100%
Nigeria
India
75%
50%
China
25%
Brazil
Mexico
1980
1990
2000
World Bank World Development Indicators http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators
2. child labour flourishes?
International Labor Organization
 International Programme on the Elimination of
Child Labour
2010 report:
“Accelerating action against Child Labour”
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/lang--en/index.htm
2. child labour flourishes?
250m
200m
150m
100m
under 15
50m
0
2000
2004
2008
53m under 15
215m child labourers
1.6b children
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/lang--en/index.htm
2. child labour flourishes?
industry 15m
services 55m
agriculture 129m
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/lang--en/index.htm
not defined 16m
2. migrant labour & sweatshops
The Economist Jul 29, 2010 “The Next China”
3. exacerbating inequality?
$150,000
$100,000
$50,000
1976
1986
1996
average after-tax income, by quintile, inflation-adjusted
2006
3. exacerbating inequality?
4. won’t we hit a wall?
Paul & Ann Ehrlich
The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of
millions of people will starve to death...
The Population Bomb, 1968
Most of the people who are going to die in the greatest cataclysm in
the history of man have already been born.
"Eco-Catastrophe!“, 1969
Due to a combination of ignorance, greed, and callousness, a
situation has been created that could lead to a billion or more
people starving to death.
The End of Affluence, 1974
“LOCALIST”
local
personal
small
hand-made
natural
“GLOBALIST”
global
impersonal
big
machine-made
artificial
now
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
localist
distance trade in luxury goods
capitalism
globalist
What’s a Christian to think?
Inflation
100%
75%
50%
25%
0%
-25%
-50%
1300
1400
1500
1600
1700
1800
1900
2000
world
$30,000
Canada
$20,000
Japan
China
$10,000
India
Nigeria
1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
Angus Madison, Historical Statistics of the World Economy: 1-2008 AD
http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/Historical_Statistics/horizontal-file_02-2010.xls
$14,000
$12,000
$10,000
$8,000
$6,000
world
$4,000
Hungary
$2,000
Portugal
1900
1920
1940
1960
1980
2000
~2,500 BCE
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Iraq´s Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur´s Royal Cemetery
~5,000 BCE
Vesna Dimitrijevic and Boban Tripkovic “Spondylus and Glycymeris bracelets: trade reflections at Neolithic Vinca-Belo Brdo” 2006
The Pew Global Attitudes Project
Q.18a Please tell me whether you completely agree, mostly agree,
mostly disagree or completely disagree with the following statements:
a. Most people are better off in a free market economy, even
though some people are rich and some are poor.
Canada
completely agree
mostly agree
agree
mostly
disagree
completely disagree
disagree
Japan
India
China
Nigeria
Pew Research Center 2007 World Publics Welcome Global Trade - But Not Immigration http://www.pewglobal.org/files/pdf/258.pdf /
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under
communism, it's just the opposite.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Possible Explanations
We are oppressed
[T]he capitalistic method[‘s]….one-sided control
of economic power tempts to exploitation and
oppression; it directs the production process of
society primarily toward the creation of private
profit rather than the service of human needs; it
demands autocratic management and
strengthens the autocratic principles in all social
affairs; it has impressed a materialistic spirit on
our whole civilization.
Rauschenbusch ibid
“Global” trade in food
[A]t Myra in Lycia….the centurion found an
Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy, and he put us
aboard it….
Acts 27 NASB
A Short Survey
3. Consider all the things you carried with you
into this room—including your clothing.
local
personal
small
hand-made
natural
global
impersonal
big
machine-made
artificial
What percentage of those things are over on
the left, and how many on the right?
inflation-adjusted per capita GDP
world
$25,000
Canada
$20,000
Japan
$15,000
China
$10,000
India
$5,000
Angus Madison, Historical Statistics of the World Economy: 1-2008 AD
2000
1800
1500
1000
500
Nigeria
0
$0
http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/Historical_Statistics/horizontal-file_02-2010.xls