Re: your views on globalization

4/10/2001, Paul Riesz wrote:
    > Though the promoters of globalization might pursue many
    different goals, their BASIC one is still the opening up of
    economies to foreign trade and any resulting benefits can
    only come from making use of comparative advantages.

If Portugal can make wine more efficiently than Britain, and if Portugal 
exports wine, accruing a profit to the Portuguese economy, then ~that~ is what 
'comparative advantage' is about.  If MacDonalds leases land in Guatemala, 
raises cattle there, and is able to sell cheaper hamburgers in Detroit, the 
benefit goes not to Guatemala but to MacDonalds.  This is what globalization is 
about, what is intended to be about, and it has nothing to do with the 
principle of comparative advantage. 


    > My proposals are not intended for a different world, but
    could - and might - have a reasonable chance of being
    adopted in the not too distant future.

What makes you think they have any reasonable chance?  They would amount to a 
frontal assault on the whole capitalist system.

sorry,
rkm
http://cyberjournal.org