I've noticed this disconnect when people talk about how programming jobs fleeing to India...the same people who bemoan how hard it is for a programmer here to switch jobs act as if all 1.2 billion Indians can become programmers overnight.
In my mind, the best argument for globalization is that the bigger the economy, the less dependent it is on fuckups/shortages/disasters in one area. I think we've actually seen this over the last twenty years, with things like the Japanese deflationary period and the dot-com bust in the US being absorbed by other parts of the economy. What happens to consumer if there's a local drought and the price of wheat skyrockets?---- ウセーバラケダ
Doesn't this effect both ends? If it's hard for an English worker to find a new job when it flees to China, isn't it equally hard for a Chinese peasant farmer to switch to that new job?
The underlying assumption of the model is that comparative advantages are always followed, by definition. So the model says the English worker is finding just as easy to switch to another occupation as the Chinese peasant. The model doesn't know anything about skills.
So if you inject into the input side that gaining useful new skills may be unachievable for a fraction of the population (this goes against the model assumption), you find that the Chinese peasant is more likely to find a job.
In my mind, the best argument for globalization is that the bigger the economy, the less dependent it is on fuckups/shortages/disasters in one area [...] What happens to consumer if there's a local drought and the price of wheat skyrockets?
The problem with globalization is that there's no world government and world justice system and world police force. What makes free trade work well in a single country or in the first world is the stability, predictability and regulations agreed upon by cooperating governments. Without those governments, or if those governments have a different agenda, then free trade can make you worse off.
For example, think about the fact that China can easily produce the US military arsenal more cheaply. It truly makes sense from a cost perspective to outsource all the electronics and assembly of US weapons there or to India or Taiwan as applies. Imagine a world where all the tanks and airplanes are manufactured in a single region, and everyone buys them from there. It's ludicrous. Why? Because the assumption of free trade, that each country participating in it can reasonably _depend_ on goods being available equally regardless of whether they are produced locally or imported is not true for weapons technology, for instance. -- $E(X_t|F_s) = X_s,\quad t > s$[ Parent ]
There actually are very few arms suppliers in the world. But yes...it is in a country's best interest not to outsource weapons production out to anywhere other than strong allies. But that's a very special case. In any case, globalization no more means that any particular thing is only made in one country than a free market means any particular thing is only made by one company. Disruptions in supply are only really an issue for resources that are found in certain places, like oil. For manufacturing, if supply were disrupted in one place, some other place would start manufacturing as the price would have gone up.---- ウセーバラケダ[ Parent ]
First, when jobs go over seas, what jobs remain? These days, it's service jobs, which very often aren't especially skilled.
Second, one of the biggest complaints about globalization is the "offshoring" of jobs requiring technical skill.
There actually are very few arms suppliers in the world.
I don't believe it's such a special case really, as the scope of free trade arguments is global. Other problem areas at the global scale are things like water and gas supply, which also are too important to leave to free trade specialization.
In any case, globalization no more means that any particular thing is only made in one country than a free market means any particular thing is only made by one company.
Disruptions in supply are only really an issue for resources that are found in certain places, like oil.
hereas the Westerner isn't switching to another low skill export industry...
