Why Globalization Works for America: How Nationalist Trade Policies are Destroying our Country
Synopsis "Why Globalization Works for America: How Nationalist Trade Policies are Destroying our Country"
Globalization is the 900-pound gorilla drastically changing America, its politics, its way of life, and how America interacts with the world. Why Globalization Works for America: How Nationalist Trade Policies Are Destroying Our Country by economist Edward Goldberg is about why globalization is here to stay, why America is the winner in the game of globalization, and why all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put the Humpty Dumpty of yesterday’s nonglobalized world back together again. No other book so clearly demonstrates why globalization works for America, why what the president is saying is “fake news,” and why his trade policies are a disaster. But the United States is a child of globalization and it is part of our DNA: the Revolutionary War was financed in Amsterdam and Paris, the Louisiana Purchase was a globalized business deal, and the great American Industrial Revolution was made possible because of mostly immigrant labor. In fact, by 1890, foreign investors held between 50 and 75 percent of the equity in American railroads. This trend has only progressed: globalization has become so ubiquitous that most Americans are nonchalant about its presence. On opening day of baseball season in 2017, over 29 percent of players were not born in the United States. We love eating clementines from Spain in the middle of the winter, driving to our nearest IKEA in a Japanese car, and buying an affordable pair of Nikes. Goldberg looks at how our lives are dictated and shaped by globalization and examines the counter-globalization movement responsible for electing President Trump. This movement, which is derived from the fact that the benefits of globalization are not shared equally across the country, is a uniquely American problem - a result of the government's refusal to design policies to mitigate these effects. To Goldberg, globalization is the human economic and cultural version of evolution. It is a natural phenomenon pushing humans into more efficient behavior that combines the rationale of the market with the human need to explore, change, and grow. It moves cultures and societies forward as one new idea challenges or blends into another.
