The Economics of Envy
 
Populism, protectionism and anti-globalism are three children of the same rascals, False Security and his Bride, Exceptionalism. Together, these are the family that make the houses of poverty homes. The collapse of the Doha Round of world trade liberalization will impoverish small farmers in the name of agriculture, workers at the request of organized labor and commerce for the benefit of business. Naturally, given that those who stood to gain the most from Doha are the poorest citizens of Earth, it was the governments of the liberal developed nations and those of developing nations which confounded the promise of progress. The goal of government being the common good and the fountain of politics being aspirations to tyranny, free trade is human endeavor’s least loved angel. A policy allowing the alleviation of poverty, the spread of opportunity and the sharing of wealth and which costs only the power of policy-makers to command it, appears faustian to the elected. Indian manufacturers know how to reward government officials for tariffs, European nationalists for ownership restrictions and Iowa farmers for subsidies. But who do we thank for cheaper shoes, more plentiful food or better cars? Those who earn prosper but those who deliver are reelected. It isn’t only the government following the wrong incentives. Workers pay union dues to protect their wages, not to improve their buying power. Nationalists seek the prominence of national brands, not the availability of better alternatives. By and large, development advocates prefer to plunder banks of third world assets rather than liberalize the opportunities offered third world people. All of these impulses disregard the basic truth of commerce, that wages, salaries and sales don’t divide poverty from wealth but what that income can purchase. Labor leaders, nationalists and bleeding hearts would have it be otherwise and if it were, we would be making fun of the famished not their fabulists in times of restricted trade. In the end, the lie behind populism, protectionism and anti-globalization is unitary, that a person or people is entitled to a wage, price or grant other than what they can find someone to pay them. The rationale varies as much as the lie stands constant. It may be pride of place of birth, the fraternity of a profession, the salinity of the earth in a farmer’s heart and hands, the color of someone’s skin, the mellifluidity of their language or the holiness of their professed and forgotten faith. In the greatest and most predictable of ironies, the neediness of the impoverished and overworked child is most often the emblem for which we overcharge French waitresses to starve the Sahelian farmer’s daughter. Note: This post is Alice’s fault. The Prattler Wordbook VENAL, n. Shrewd. VICARIOUSLY, adv. In the manner of a populist celebrating success. VICEROY, n. A bureaucrat. VICTIM, n. Anyone two bits shy of comfortable. VICTORY, n. The evidence of irrelevance. VICTORIOUSLY, adj. Having turned a train bound for disaster onto a track to catastrophe. VISCERAL, adj. The certainty that our diets are healthy, our investments wise and our friends listening to our advice. http://takingplace.org/node/190shapeimage_2_link_0
Saturday, July 29, 2006
From the collection of Richard Samuel West / Periodyssey.http://www.periodyssey.com/private/press.htmshapeimage_5_link_0