Now I understand the destructiveness of Globalism

"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. "

Thomas Jefferson


As Iron Man said (in the second movie) - "dead for over 200 years and still taking me to school".

I had never read this quote from Thomas Jefferson, but verily it doth indeed explain how globalism has turned into the destructive force that it has. Economists are of course the cheerleaders for globalism (i.e. "The Global Economy") because as with any profession, the more complex the landscape the more job security one has - but that's a side note. My main point is that I was confused about how our glorious captains of industry could literally sell both us and their Grandmothers down the river for a crooked Chinese penny, and this quote from one of our Founding Fathers explains it perfectly. It is inherent in the breed - "merchants" (economists and corporatists) have no motivation to sacrifice any portion of profit for motivations such as patriotism, nationalism, gratitude, etc. They ascribe to a philosophy of financial Darwinism which states that no other consideration need be taken into account when pursuing a profit, and that the pursuit of said profit is the only blessing that any action needs.

I assume that this is how defense lawyers console themselves when they successfully defend child rapists and mass murders - "if the system allowed me to prove innocence then the system takes responsibility - I have no burden of duty or guilt as long as I am operating within the system". Of course this is the same mind set that the guards at the Nazi death camps used to avoid personal responsibility.

So in essence, I am (unfairly?) expecting each and every business person to apply this litmus test to all of their actions: in addition to contributing to short term profit, will this action - if replicated by all other businesses - harm society in the long term. One quick and easy test application of this test would apply to the off shoring of American jobs. If every American company were to offshore all jobs which could possibly be relocated, in the pursuit of any profit advantage no matter how small, will this adversely impact the general American business environment and society at large. The obvious answer is "YES" - for how can there be consumers to buy your products if there are no employers who are willing to pay them.

The fundamental problem here is that we have allowed unfettered capitalism to become our social planning mechanism. I will restate a comparison to the point of boring redundancy; but capitalism is like fire - it can be a powerful tool for good if properly controlled and directed, but to say that fire is good and therefor should be released is the same kind of insanity which propelled us to completely unfetter the markets to pursue their whims without oversight. We are doomed unless we get our corporations back under control and stop using THEIR profits as the final arbitrator in decisions which impact society; and unfortunately the balance of power is on their side now, so we have to fight as under-dogs in this battle.

And if we lose this battle, then any and every evil vision of the future that you've ever seen in books or movies will come to pass. Probably the best example I can think of would be "Rollerball", James Caan.

Steven in Dallas