QuestionsWeb LinksClass OutlineClass notes

Question for Discussion: Do you agree that Globalization
needs to be fundamentally reformed in order to work
for all the World's Peoples?

Readings: Saul, "The End of Globalism" ; Greider, "America's Truth Deficit"; The Council of the Canadians, "Our World is not for Sale"

Interview: Commanding Heights , vol. 3., chap 22: The Battle Resumed;
YouTube: Occupy Wall Street 2011; Lou Dobbs Interview with John Saul (2004)


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Debating Globalization in 2006

Basic Assumptions of Corporate Globalism

Conservatives want to Shrink the Size of Government

 

Working for a Civil Society

Groups Working to Oppose Corporate Globalization

The United Nations and Globalization


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Can We Transform Globalization or TINA?


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Models of Globalization

Korten: Living Democracy Movement

"When activists reframe a significant cultural
context, they're like the child who shouts that
the emperor is wearing no clothes."
Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson, The Cultural Creatives

"For Korten, the major contest today is between
corporate globalization and a living democracy
movement. Just as the civil society activists
helped bring down the corrupt, unjust Soviet
communist regime in Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union, Korten looks to a "living democracy"
movement to transform a corrupt, undemocratic
corporate globalist society and culture into
a democratic, sustainable, humane culture that
focuses on human well-being and not money."
(Chris Lewis)

"The larger goal of the living democracy movement is to create a radically democratic global civil society of free and equal, civically conscious citizens." (Korten, 330)

"The term civil society, now closely identified with the global democracy movement, came into contemporary use with the emergence of the pro-democracy movements in Eastern Europe. In its most common use, civil society is synonymous with the non-profit, non-governmental sector." (Korten, 330)

See the Definition of a Civil Society

"In the civil society, the cultural sphere is the
dominant sphere of public life and is a product of
the active community life of free, culturally aware
people...." (Korten, 330)

Perlas, "Civil Society: The Third Global Force "

And what is this lesson? It is now clear that the fate of the world is no longer determined by the bipolar power struggle between large transnational corporations and powerful nation states, such bipolar power that is represented in the very structure of the WTO. The defeat of the WTO in Seattle now shows that a third global force has emerged with elemental strength to contest the monopoly of world economic and political leaders over the fate of the earth. This third force is what we now know as global civil society.

It was global civil society as the third force that actually determined the outcome of the WTO talks in Seattle. We now live in a tri-polar world of large businesses, powerful governments, and global civil society. If we are to learn the central lesson of the defeat of the powerful WTO in Seattle, it is now the time to understand the nature of global civil society as the third force. And one way to develop this understanding is to flash back to another major defeat of the powers behind the WTO early last year.

Korten's Models of Civil and Capitalist Societies

"In the capitalist society, the economy is the dominant
sector. Here power and values flow from money to
economic institutions that in turn shape the
institutions of government and culture to align
society's rules, values, and symbols with financial
interests." (Korten, 331)

"The corporate media wants us to associate the
word capitalism with democracy, market freedom,
and lavish material prosperity for all." (Korten, 334)

"Capitalists worshipped a god called the market.
They believed the market had an invisible hand
that miraculously turned acts of greed and
ruthlessness to the benefit of the species. One
of capitalism's defining features was a consumer
culture...Increasingly the creative energies of the
species turned to building powerful institutions
called corporations, which were dedicated to
endlessly increasing consumption through a
process called economic growth." (Korten, 340)

"As the year 2000 approached there was evidence
of an emerging cultural shift. Millions of people
around the world were awakening, as if from a
deep trance, to the beauty, joy, and meaning of
life....demanding a restoration of democracy, an
end to corporate rule, and respect for the needs
of all people and other living beings." (Korten, 340)

Norquist on Drowning Government

"I don't want to abolish government, I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the
bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

Grover Norquist, talking to Terry Gross on NPR

Jon Saul: The End of Globalism

"We have scarcely noticed this collapse, however, because Globalization has been asserted by its
believers to be inevitable--an all-powerful god; a holy trinity of burgeoning markets, unsleeping technology, and borderless managers. Opposition or criticism has been treated as little more than romantic paganism."

"Inevitability is the traditional final justification for failing ideologies. Less traditional--and a sign of inherent weakness--is the extent to which Globalisation was conceived as old-fashioned religiosity. Perhaps the economists and other believers who launched Globalisation were instinctively concerned that people would notice their new theories were oddly similar to the trade theories of the mid-19th century or the unregulated market models that had been discredited in 1929."

"Despite that initial certainty, a growing vagueness now surrounds the original promise of Globalization; we seem to have lost track of what was repeatedly declared 30 years ago, even 10 years ago, to be inevitable:

That the power of the nation state was on its way out, to be replaced by that of global markets. That in the future, economics, not politics or arms, would determine the course of human events. That freed markets would quickly establish natural international balances, impervious to the old boom-and-bust cycles. That the growth in international trade, as a result of lowering barriers, would unleash an economic-social tide that would raise all ships, whether of our Western poor or of the developing world in general. That prosperous markets would turn dictatorships into democracies. That all of this would discourage irresponsible nationalism, racism, and political violence. That global economics would produce stability through the creation of ever larger corporations impervious to bankruptcy. That these transnational corporations would provide a new kind of international leadership, free of local political prejudices."

" In summary, global economic forces, if left unfettered by willful man, would protect us against the errors of local self-pride, while allowing individual self-interest to lead each individual to a better life. Together these forces and self-interest would produce prosperity and general happiness. In a society where Christian dogma had been so dominant until so recently, how could people of goodwill not be attracted by this good news - by these promises of personal redemption? And if you add to all of this a multitude of new, technocratic market methods - well, then, the cycles of history would be broken, setting us on a permanent, inevitable course. In the words of a particularly naive believer, history would die. History was already dead."

"This transcendent vision quickly filled the vacuum. I first heard the variety of personal passivity produced by this belief system on French national television in a speech by Giscard d'Estaing. He had been elected as a new-style political leader--a brilliant economist. Modern. Almost postmodern. He was to lead society via the economy. But he came in just after the 1973 collapse, which included high inflation and unemployment. After a year or so of struggling with the collapse, Giscard went on television to tell people that great global, indeed inevitable, forces were at work. There was therefore little that he could do. Nation states were powerless.

This was the beginning of the mania for public declarations of impotence by democratically elected leaders. Globalisation became their excuse for not dealing with difficult issues, for not using their levers of power and larger budgets to effect. They made the force of inevitability credible."

"Government after government, as if in a fit of moralism, legislated away its right to take on debt or collect new taxes, even though both of these were fundamental governmental powers, central to the construction and maintenance of democracies. In fact, debt and taxes had played the same fundamental role in the pre-democratic period. At the same time, the private sector invented myriad new debts and privatised taxes for itself. Everything from junk bonds to credit cards was treated as an unregulated privatised currency. And corporations used the old default mechanism more than ever to clear their own decks whenever it was handy to do so. "

"From the early 1970s to late in the century, multiple binding international economic treaties were put in place, while almost no counterbalancing binding treaties were negotiated for work conditions, taxation, the environment, or legal obligations. For 250 years the painful job of building the modern nation state had depended on a continual rebalancing of binding rules for both the public good and self-interest.

Now this balance was tipped violently one way by simply shifting much of our economic power out into the global marketplace.

With economic power denationalised and transnationals using the new unregulated debt and currency systems to accumulate a financial worth greater than that of most nation states, the next logical step was to think of those transnationals as new nations unto themselves - virtual nations, freed of the limitations of geography and citizens, freed of local obligations, empowered with the mobility of money and goods. Better in every way."

"Soon people began to notice other contradictions in the Global orthodoxy. How could the same ideology promise a planetary growth in democracy and yet a decline in the power of the nation state? Democracy exists only inside countries. Weaken the nation state and you weaken democracy.

Why did an unprecedented increase in money supply translate into a dearth of money for public services? And why did this growth in new moneys enrich mainly those who already had money? Why did it lead to a growth in the rich-versus-poor dichotomy and a squeezing of the middle class? Why did many privatisations of public utilities neither improve services nor lower costs for consumers but instead guarantee revenues to the new owners while leading to a collapse in infrastructure investment?"

"By the turn of the 21st century, it had become clear that nationalism and the nation states were stronger than they had been when Globalisation began. Indeed, this was apparent as early as 1991, when the Yugoslavian army tried to stop Slovenia and Croatia from leaving their federation. The ensuing massacre was a test for almost every international organisation. All of them failed. As if in a black comedy, international elites chattered away about how global economic forces made nation states irrelevant, while thousands of real people were being murdered and cleansed to facilitate the creation of yet more nation states. The resulting horror shocked the Europeans into the realisation that their economic and administrative union was helpless in a political-military disaster....

The point is that the inevitability of global economic leadership has been irrelevant through all these crises. While the true believers speak of Globalisation, we are in fact in the middle of an accelerated political meltdown marked by astonishing levels of nationalist violence. "

"In other words, Latin America no longer believes in Globalisation. Neither does Africa. Nor does a good part of Asia. Globalisation is no longer global. Indeed, most Western finance ministers have been quietly working for some time on partial re-regulation of the markets. Why quietly? To avoid the ferocity of the true believers.

In 1998 the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Ian Macfarlane, began calling for reregulation. "More people are asking whether the international financial system as it has operated for most of the nineties is basically unstable. By now, I think the majority of observers have come to the conclusion that it is, and that some changes have to be made."

"As for the romance of gigantism--of corporate size as a criterion for industrial success--it was beginning to look pretty silly. Endless mergers had led to high levels of unserviceable debt and bankruptcy. It was as if size had replaced thought. As if it were a male thing...

More perhaps than the genocides, the disorder in the streets, or the debt crises, it was those simple recurring images of corporate ineptitude, combined with an absence of self-criticism, that first made clear the decline of Globalisation. How then could any of us seriously believe that our redemption lay in the reconceptualisation of civilisation so that we could all view it through the prism of business and economics?

The larger the corporations became, the more deregulation released them to be themselves, the faster they slipped out of sync with their civilisation and even with their customers and shareholders."

"Ideology, like theatre, is dependent on the willing suspension of disbelief. At the core of every ideology lies the worship of a bright new future, with only failure in the immediate past. But once the suspension goes, willingness converts into suspicion - the suspicion of the betrayed. Our brilliant leaders abruptly appear naive, even ridiculous.

And so, in the late 1990s, our disbelief came back, and with it our memory. The years between 1945 and 1973 no longer seemed such a failure. In fact, it had been one of the most successful eras in history for both social reform and economic growth. It was something to build on, to reform; not something to dismiss. "

"Then came the explosions of September 11, 2001. In the following days, the world economy began plummeting into a depression. Corporate leaders hunkered down to their businesses, forgot about world leadership and, with a classic desire to reduce risk, slashed their investment programs, thus accelerating society's economic plunge.

"As for the political leaders, ministers of finance, chairs of reserve and national banks - the constituted elites of the nation states - they rolled into action. They travelled and talked, printed money and spent vast amounts of it. And they managed to stabilise the situation. In other words, there was a brutal, highly public and existential reversal of roles. The governments of the nation states took back their full power both to act and to lead. The CEOs retreated back into their historic reactive role.

"Once belief is gone, the churches begin to empty. You could see this accelerating disbelief in bankruptcy court in December 2001, when, as if in the last scene of an old-fashioned bedroom farce, the "inevitability" of Global corporate leadership came face to face with Enron, filing for government protection from its private debts."

"Throughout the world, nations began moving about like semi-free agents. Organisations such as NATO are still solid. There is no desire to storm out. But everyone is checking around to see if there are other ways they might like to act. And with whom.

What this might mean remains painfully unclear. Here we are, rushing around one of those sharp corners with no idea of where we are going. Perhaps back to the worst of old-style negative nationalism. Or perhaps on towards a more complex and interesting form of positive nationalism, based on the public good."

"The return of the idea of national power has also meant the return of the idea of choice--choice for citizens and choice for countries. But with choice comes uncertainty, which provokes fear. The moment we entered the post-Globalisation vacuum, you could feel that fear begin to rise. And curiously enough, the greater a nation's power, the more intense the fear becomes. Perhaps power produces an expectation of certainty. Perhaps smaller countries find a certain freedom in uncertainty - the freedom to choose without being bullied. Necessity, Pitt the Younger said, is the excuse of every tyranny. For most smaller countries, Globalization has felt like an inevitability and, so, like a tyranny."

Our World is not for Sale: WTO Sink or Shrink Petition

"It's time to stop corporate globalization and to fight for another world we know is possible. In November 1999, the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Third Ministerial Meeting in Seattle collapsed in spectacular fashion, in the face of unprecedented protest from people and governments around the world. Since then around the world in rich and poor nations alike, millions of people have joined the fight for a just and sustainable future and against corporate globalization."

"The time is overdue to roll back the power and authority of the WTO. The democratic, transparency, and accountability deficits in this institution, which supposedly promotes free trade, have in fact only contributed to the concentration of wealth in the hands of the rich few, growing inequality within and between nations, increasing poverty for the majority of the world's peoples, displacement of farmers and workers especially in third world countries, and unsustainable patterns of production and consumption."

"We need to protect cultural, biological, economic and social diversity; introduce progressive policies to prioritize local economies and trade; secure internationally recognized economic, cultural, social and labor rights; and reclaim the sovereignty of peoples and national and sub-national democratic decision making processes. In order to do this, we need new rules based on the principles of democratic control of resources, ecological sustainability, equity, cooperation and precaution. "

"It is inappropriate and unacceptable for social rights and basic needs to be constrained or over-ridden by WTO rules. Protections critical to human or planetary welfare, such as food and water, basic social services, education, health and safety, environmental sustainability and animal well-being must not be undercut by commercial agreements. "

"Gut GATS: Protect Basic Social Services AND PUBLIC PROTECTIONS Areas such as health, education, energy distribution, water, and other basic human services must not be subject to international free trade rules. In addition, the GATS must not limit the ability of governments and people to regulate in order to protect the environment, health, safety and other public interests."

"Measures taken to promote and protect genuine food sovereignty and security as well as to promote small farmers practicing sustainable agriculture must be exempted from international trade rules. The trading system must not undermine the livelihood of peasants, small farmers, artisanal fishers and indigenous peoples.

The basic human right to food can only be realized in a system where food sovereignty is guaranteed, meaning the right of peoples to define their own food and agricultural policies as well as the right to produce their basic foods in a manner respecting cultural and productive diversity. "

"Free trade" puts corporate profits before people and the environment. We need fair trade. Fundamental human and workers' rights must be respected, promoted and realized, as must the environment, health, education, indigenous peoples' rights, development, safety, food security, and animal welfare."

"People must have the right to self-determination and the right to know and decide on international commercial commitments. Among other things, this requires that decision-making processes in negotiations and enforcement at international commercial bodies be democratic, transparent and inclusive. The WTO operates in a secretive, exclusionary manner that shuts out WTO Members and the public. It is dominated by a few powerful governments acting on behalf of their corporate elite."

"Governments must negotiate, through the UN system
or other appropriate bodies, with full democratic participation, a binding agreement to ensure that corporate conduct is socially and environmentally responsible and democratically accountable."

"Conclusions and Consequences

We are committed to a sustainable, socially just and democratically accountable trade system. Thus, as a first step, we demand that our governments implement the changes listed in this document in order to roll back the power and authority of the WTO and turn trade around.

We commit ourselves to mobilize people within our countries to fight for these demands and to defy the unjust policies of the WTO. We will also support other people and countries who do so with international solidarity campaigns.

We pledge to carry the Spirit of Seattle around the world and ensure that no new WTO round is launched in Qatar."

Grieder, America's Truth Deficit

"DURING the cold war, as the Soviet economic system slowly unraveled, internal reform was impossible because highly placed officials who recognized the systemic disorders could not talk about them honestly. The United States is now in an equivalent predicament. Its weakening position in the global trading system is obvious and ominous, yet leaders in politics, business, finance and the news media are not willing to discuss candidly what is happening and why. Instead, they recycle the usual bromides about the benefits of free trade and assurances that everything will work out for the best.

Much like Soviet leaders, the American establishment is enthralled by utopian convictions - the market orthodoxy of free trade globalization. The United States is heading for yet another record trade deficit in 2005, possibly 25 percent larger than last year's. Our economy's international debt position - accumulated from many years of tolerating larger and larger trade deficits - began compounding ferociously in the last five years. Our net foreign indebtedness is now more than 25 percent of gross domestic product and at the current pace will reach 50 percent in four or five years."

"The possibility that the United States can no longer afford globalization, at least not as it now functions, is what opinion leaders do not wish to discuss. A few brave dissenters have stated the matter plainly and called for significant policy shifts to stop the hemorrhaging. Warren Buffett, the legendary investor, says the United States is destined to become not an "ownership society," but a "sharecropper society." But his analysis, and others like it, are brushed aside. "

"The American predicament is shaped by operating dynamics grounded in the global system, singularly embraced by Washington because Washington originated most of them. At the outset, these practices were both virtuous and self-interested for the United States - encouraging industrialization in poor countries, binding cold war allies together with trade and investment, furthering the global advance of American business and finance. With its wide-open market, America played - and still plays - buyer of last resort for world exports. Its leading companies and banks gained access to developing new markets, often by sharing jobs, production and technology with others. American policymakers also got to run the world."

"By contrast, Washington defines "national interest" primarily in terms of advancing the global reach of our multinational enterprises. Elites are persuaded by the reigning orthodoxy that subsidiary domestic interests will ultimately benefit too. The distinctive power of America's globalized companies is reflected in trade patterns. Nearly half of American exports and imports are not traded in open markets - the price auction idealized by neoclassical economics - but within the companies themselves, moving materials and components back and forth among their far-flung factories. A trade deficit does not show on the company's balance sheet, only on the nation's. In recent years, much of the trade deficit has reflected the value-added production and jobs that companies moved elsewhere. "

"At a different moment in history, American leadership might have stepped up to these disorders and led the way to solutions. If globalization is to continue without encountering more crisis and random destruction, governments must together shift the balance of power so labor incomes can rise in step with rising productivity and profits. If the United States is to avert its own reckoning, it must take decisive action to draw firm limits on its exposure to trade deficits, that is, resign its position as the open-armed buyer of last resort. In effect, Washington would also reform its own national interest imperatives so that they more closely resemble what other nations already embrace. Ultimately, American remedial action may protect the global system from its own crisis - the moment when trading partners discover they have just lost their best customer."

Basic Economic Conditions sought
by the "Electronic Herd"(summary by Chris Lewis):

(These are ideal conditions that make local
economies "competitive" in a global market.)

1. Low Wage workers. Very low to no-
minimum wage laws. Right-to-work conditions.

2. Little to no income tax on Corporations and
the Wealthy.

3. Government support for Global Corporations.
Build plants, train workers, create basic
infrastructure for tax-free Export Processing Zones.

4 . Little to no environmental, work-safety, and
plant-safety regulations.

5 . Ability to easily move profits and investments
out of the country. No capital controls.
6. No to weak-Union environment. Some
countries will have "company" or "state" unions.

7 . Stable currency with no inflation. Balanced
government budgets to make the currency more stable.

8 . Allow child labor and don't limit work to the
40-hour work week.

9 . Reduced government support for health-care,
education, anti-poverty, and anti-hunger programs.
This forces workers to work for the lowest wages
because they are desperate.

10. Little to no social security, healthcare,
or workers' compensation taxes on Global Corporations.

The Race to the Bottom

Social Values slighted by Globalization

When public policy and social practice seek solely to maximize private profit in the market, they slight other values of great significance. These include:

* democratic decision-making

* environmental protection

* protecting the young, the old, the
disabled, and the weakest members
of our society

* equality

* human solidarity

* community stability

* individual and family security

* long-term public and private planning and investment

* dignity in the work process

* goods and services consumed collectively

* cultural diversity

Surely these are among the "broad human interests"
that an economic system should seek to sustain

Debating Globalization

Friedman and Korten: Competing Visions of a Global Society
( See Korten's Model of Civil or Capitalist Society )
Friedman--Global Economy
& consumer culture to
support corporate interest
 Korten--Localized global
system & sustainable living
to support human interest
1. Global Economy 1. Local Economies
2. Global Free Markets 2. Managed Local Markets
3. Electronic Herd 3. Local, Democratic Control
4. Golden Straitjacket 4. Local Rules & Culture
5. Global Culture 5. Diverse Local Cultures
6. Fast World--constant
change in culture & tradition
 6. Slow World--respect
culture & tradition
7. Market-Controlled 7. Locally-Controlled
8. Value money, material
wealth, & individual freedom		 8. Value love, family,
and community
9. Democracy of Wealth 9. Democracy of Citizens
10. Little to no Social
Contract--Market dictates
10. Social Contract--
safety net for the poor
11. Protect material wealth
over the Environment
 11. Protect the Environment
over material wealth
12.Protect Money & property
over Human Rights and
quality of life		 12. Protect Human Rights &
quality of life over money
& property rights
13. Fast World--value change
over culture & traditon
 13. Slower World--value
culture and tradition
14. Pursue ever higher
standard of living & wealth		 14. Pursue quality of life
and human well-being
15. See Corporations as
People with legal rights
that society can't violate		 15. See Corporations as
socially-created, dependent
on society for their rights.
16. Protect Corporations &
wealth over human interest		 16. Protect human interest
over Corporations & wealth
17. Value individualism
and competitiveness		 17. Value the common
interest and public good
18. Primary value is
materialism & consumerism		 18.Primary value is human
relationships & community
19. Corporate-centered,
focus on making money
 19. People-centered,
focus on public interest
20. Reliance on global
economy for well-being		 20. Reliance on local
economy for well-being
21. Focus on increasing
consumption & materialism		 21. Focus on increasing
quality of life & community
22. Corporate Agriculture,
produce for global market		 22. Family farms, produce
for local communities
23. Increasing consumption of
scarce natural resources		 23. Reduce consumption
of scarce resources,
focus on recyle & reuse
24. Focus on growing the
global economy and creating
new consumer demand
 24. Focus on sustainable
living,reducing consumption
and preserving resouces
Global Development Model of Corporate Libertarians or, what I and others call, "Supporters of Corporate Globalization."

Economic growth and development will bring wealth,
a clean environment, and more freedom for all peoples.

The First World will lead the Third World towards
development by providing them the loans and
technology they need to become developed.
The First World stands as the model of a
modern, developed society. The United States
usually represents the model for these
underdeveloped countries.

This model of global development has been
called by many different names: modernization,
development, industrialization, and today
as "globalization."

The central key to continued development is,
and always has been, "economic growth."
Global Economic Growth is the fuel behind
Globalization. As long as the global economy
and global economic production is increasing,
supporters of corporate globalization argue,
development and globalization are on track.

This Global Development model assumes that
Economic growth will produce wealth, affluence,
increasing standards of living, freedom, and
unlimited opportunities for all people.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Critics of Globalization and Global
Development argue that it doesn't
work and can't work:

Continued Economic Growth is quickly using up
scare global natural resources, polluting the
environment, and creating poverty and increasing
economic inequality.

--------------------------------------------------------------
The Economic Growth model assumes that as
long as total wealth (the economic pie) is growing
and getting bigger that the economy and development
are working. If we stop or limit economic growth,
then there will be less money to clean up the
environment, to help poor people and under-developed
nations, to invest in new science and technology,
and to create wealth and opportunity for all people.

Supporters of this model argue that as long as
wealth is being created and invested in a
healthy, growing global economy, then all
people will be better off. Of course, critics of
this development model call this "trickle-down
economics." (See Third World Poverty and
Underdevelopment or "tricke-up economics.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Critics of Corporate Globalization argue that
there are real limits to continued economic growth
caused by:

1. Scarce natural resources

2. Environmental pollution

3. Destruction of Global Ecosystems

4. Limits to Human control over the Earth through science and technology

5. Increasing Poverty and Economic Inequality
between the very wealthy of the First World and
the very poor of the Third World.

And if such global economic growth is not sustainable
on a long-term basis, how do both developed and
under-developed nations respond? Can we
create something called "Sustainable Development"?

Supporters of Sustainable Development argue
that we can make economic growth and development
sustainable, so that current economic growth doesn't
undermine future economic growth.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Korten argues that instead of concentrating on
increasing economic growth and GDP, we should
concentrate on ending poverty, improving our
quality of life, and achieving a sustainable balance
with the Earth. (p. 44)

Korten (p. 56) argues that we should make our
goal "sustainable well-being for all people":

1. Bring human uses of the environment into
balance with the the regenerative capacities of the
global environment. (Limit pollution, limit and stop
the destruction of global ecosystems, and preserve
and protect a healthy global environment.)

2. Focus on ensuring that "all people have the
opportunity to fulfill their physical needs
adequately and to pursue their full social,
cultural, intellectual, and spiritual development.
(Instead of focusing on economic growth and
creating wealth, focus on improving people's
lives and quality of life.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Corporate Libertarians and the
basic assumptions of Corporate Globalization:

1. Sustained economic growth , as measured by
gross domestic product (GDP), is the path to
human progress.

2. Free markets, unrestrained by governments,
provide more and cheaper goods and opportunities
to all people.

3. Economic Globalization, created by removing
the barriers to free trade and free markets, to
the free flow of goods and services, and the
free flow of capital and finance increases
economic growth, lowers consumer prices,
creates more jobs, and provides more
opportunities for all people.

4. Free markets and free trade create greater
rates of economic growth and wealth creation.

5. Privatization, removing many of the functions
of government and letting the private sector provide
these services, such as water, electricity, health,
and schooling, lowers prices and costs and creates
a higher quality of life.

6. Deregulation. Corporations and Wealth should be
protected from government regulation and burdensome
health and environmental regulations.

7. The "invisible hand of the marketplace"
allows the individual pursuit of self-interest
to maximize the public good. By earning profits,
global corporations are helping all people to
have better lives.

8. Comparative Advantage allows countries to
create some products and services better than
other countries, so that nations will try to produce
goods that they have a comparative advantage in.

9. Eliminate Trade Barriers. Tariffs and import
controls undermine global free trade and limit
and undermine the creation of wealth and
opportunity.

10. Globalization. As long as global corporations are
allowed to move money, jobs, and technology
throughout the world in order to maximize their
profits and governments limit taxes and regulations
on corporations, the global economy will continue
to growth.

11. Tax Breaks for the Wealthy and Large
Corporations. Because the wealthy and large
global corporations create jobs and more wealth,
governments should provide tax breaks and
economic incentives and support for
corporations.

12. Economic Growth reduces Poverty. Poverty
is created by lack of economic growth and
corporate investment.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
From a Corporate Globalization perspective:
Without continued global economic growth and
development, our global society will lack the
money, resources, science and technology, and
freedom to solve all our global problems:

1. Environmental pollution

2. Destruction of global ecosystems

3. Increasing Global poverty and underdevelopment

4. Increasing scarcity of natural resources

5. Scarcity of Individual Freedom and Opportunity.

6. Increasing poverty in the Third World.

In this model, Economic Growth is the proverbial
goose that keeps laying the golden eggs. We can't
kill the goose that lays the golden eggs by
limiting or ending economic growth. So despite
some of the surface problems globalization causes:

1. Environmental pollution

2. Destruction of global ecosystems

3. Increasing Global poverty and Underdevelopment

4. Destruction and waste of scarce natural resources

5. Declining individual and societal freedom in
a Global Marketplace dominated by the very
wealthy and large global corporations.

We must continue the march of progress by
trusting our future to economic growth and
development, globalization, and the development
of a global economy dominated by large global
corporations. Though things look a little scary,
trust us, "life is getting better and better in the
best of all possible worlds."

Summary of Poltical and Economic Reforms Korten includes in his "Ecological Revolution" blueprint for reform:

1. Get Corporations and the Wealthy out of Politics.
Limit Lobbying, Campaign Donations, Advertising,
and phony public-interest group lobbying.

2. Publicly fund elections and limit campaign spending.
Force the broadcast media to provide free air-time
for political campaigns.

3. Limit the size of media ownership to prevent large
corporations from controlling the airwaves.

4. Create alternative economy--community enterprise
system-- where business serves a local economy

5. Eliminate subsidies, corporate welfare, and tax
breaks for corporations and the wealthy.

6. Use anti-trust laws to break up large corporate
oligopolies and enforce a competitive market.

7. Tax financial transactions, surtax on short-term
capital gains, tight regulations of stock market, hedge
funds, and derivatives.

8. Force Large Banks to pay for their own deposit
insurance so that they pay for the financial risks
they take when they loan money to people outside
of their local and regional economy.

9. Shift taxes from income and social security taxes
to taxes on resource extraction, packaging, pollution,
corporate lobbying, advertising, luxuries, and imports.

10. Provide a guaranteed income adequate to meet
a person's basic needs.

11. Progressive taxes on income and consumption
of luxury goods. Tax inheritance and trust income

12. Limit the pay ratio between workers and CEOs
to no more than 15 to 1.

13. Reduce the workweek and ensure equal
employment opportunity for all those who want
to work.

14. Deny corporations the same rights as individuals.
Take away charters to operate from corporations
that have committed crimes against the society.

15. Decommission the Bretton Woods institutions--
the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund,
and the World Trade Organization.

16. Make the United Nations' responsible fo
managing national debt, global trade, bankruptcy
or insolvency, and controlling global corporations

Another World is Possible Vision


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Sewall Academic Program; University of Colorado at Boulder
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