Yes, I'm writing this in response to
Tyronen's diary. I was going to post this in reply, but it got so long I decided to post it as a diary instead.
I am also Asian-American, and I stand firmly against globalization, including outsourcing. In the long run, I am convinced that it's bad for everyone. I agree that we Americans use far more than our share of natural resources, and that it has to stop. Moreover, I think it will stop, whether we like it or not. Our modern society is built on fossil fuels, and they won't last forever. But globalization isn't the solution to poverty. It may be increasing it.
Globalization is the method we use to grab other countries' natural resources. We're like a greedy kid who's gobbled his dessert, and now wants to eat everyone else's. Free trade means that other countries have to sell their products and resources to the highest bidder...and we can outbid everyone.
Well, at least that means our money is helping the poor, right? Wrong. They're worse off than ever. People who used to grow their own corn or manioc or whatever are now forced off their land, so the wealthy can grow luxury goods for us. Things like coffee, spices, chocolate. The former subsistence farmers are either forced to move to the cities to look for work, or become virtual slaves for the wealthy land owners. Or if they continue to farm, they get much less for their crops, because they must compete with modern agribusiness on the open market. (Mexico used to grow their own corn. Now they import it - from us.)
Most other countries are more socially stratified than we are. There are more millionaires in Mexico than in the U.S. - not because that country is wealthier, but because the wealth is less evenly distributed there. Globalization has exacerbated this, and I think it's happening in the U.S., too. We're all becoming serfs, working longer and longer hours for wages that don't keep up with inflation, while our benefits slowly vanish. But the CEOs can make 400 times what their lowest paid employee makes or more, rather than the 20 to 40 that was more typical in the past.
Globalization may tend to equalize wealth between countries, but it increases stratification within countries. Yes, outsourcing and importing can bring wealth to Third World countries. But how much of it is really going to the poor?
It's just another version of "trickle down" economics. And it's working globally about as well as it worked for Ronald Reagan. Some wealth does trickle down, but most of it stays in the pockets of the rich and powerful.
Yes, some poor workers in some countries are benefiting from outsourcing...but for how long? There's always going to be another country where people will work cheaper. Globalization sets up a situation where countries must compete to offer cheaper and cheaper labor - lower wages, fewer benefits, less protection for workers and for the environment. We see that now, with the recent brouhaha over ending textile quotas. It's not just American workers who are worried about losing their jobs to the China juggernaut. Textile workers in countries like Mexico, Thailand, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Ghana are also likely to lose their jobs to China, if trade becomes truly free.
Globalization doesn't help people. It helps corporations, to the detriment of people. Is it any wonder that there are growing doubts about globalization, even among some of its former propenents? Just ask Lou Dobbs.