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Localization is Way to Redefine Globalization
Madison residents love their farmers' markets, windmills, rural health cooperatives, credit unions and hundreds of other green businesses, appreciating how they simultaneously benefit the local economy, environment and civic life. Less appreciated, however, is the essential role localization plays in promoting global prosperity, sustainability and peace - the central theme of this weekend's Future Cities 2009 conference taking place in Madison.
Some skeptics, like Princeton University's Peter Singer, argue that Americans have a duty to avoid going local and to keep purchasing raw commodities from the global South, like plantation-grown bananas and coffee. Yet given how little of each import dollar actually winds up in the hands of the workers most in need - probably less than a penny - this is, at best, an extremely inefficient antipoverty strategy. It perpetuates domination of the poor by global corporations.
If we really want to help the poor, it's far smarter to help poor countries, poor communities and the poorest residents living in them to achieve the same level of local self-reliance we seek for ourselves. Mohandas Gandhi argued that the way to defeat British power was to restore self-reliance, especially in basics like textiles and salt. He did not suggest that India embark on a campaign to attract nicer British factories or to expand exports to London.
This isn't going to be easy. As Madison's long-standing sister-city partnership with cities like Managua, Nicaragua, have underscored, serious global antipoverty work requires ongoing, long-term partnerships between communities, North and South, in which we help one another reorganize every element of our economies. As we in the North create community food systems, we might help partners in the South transform their food systems, away from the plantations and export crops and toward the cultivation of enough healthy fruits, vegetables, rice and beans to feed their own families. As we strengthen and spread our own local banks, credit unions, stock markets and mutual funds, we can help partners create these institutions as well, so that local savings everywhere increasingly support local housing, local education and local entrepreneurship. As we deploy new technologies to become more energy efficient, we can share our know-how with renewable resource innovators in the South.
For nearly a generation, the city-state of Bremen, Germany, has been spending about $1 million per year to help its partners in the South - in Pune, India, for example - become more energy efficient by giving away digesters that convert local waste products and plant matter into burnable biogas.
Every localization initiative, if we are prepared to share and spread it, provides another piece to the puzzle of global poverty relief.
As these activities proceed, relatively wealthy partners like ourselves should remember that we have as much to learn as to teach. Microfinance was pioneered by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Some of the best mass-transit innovations have come from Curitaba, Brazil. The wireless telecommunications networks in Asia, which skipped the "wired" phase of industrialization, are among the best in the world. One of the world's finest examples of a self-reliant community is Gaviotas, a 200-person village in Colombia, which has pioneered several solar and wind technologies, developed a particularly effective and environmentally benign means of extracting resin from pine trees, and set up organic farms, social services and reforestation efforts that have drawn worldwide attention.
A world of self-reliant cities is better not only for global ecosystems but also for the health of global democracy. Actively sharing great local business models provides a new tool for spreading democratic practice, not through threats or violence, but through opportunity and collaboration. Self-reliant communities, moreover, have very little rational reason to invade or coerce one another for oil, water or other resources.
Localization is not about ducking globalization but about redefining it.
- Posted in
33 Comments so far
Show AllChoose your favorite area of focus and explore what is being done by whom and where - and get interactive!!
http://www.wiserearth.org/
Also visit Catalytic Communities
http://www.catcomm.org/en/
the weaving of interactive connections is well underway...
the Great Irony of americans coming to the idea of "localization" to save the economy is that
IT IS THE UNITED STATES that has gone abroad, spreading its gospel - usa style of "globalization" (in a world that was ALWAYS globalized since man became man) -
BY DESTROYING LOCAL ECONOMIES.
so that today - the consequences of its cretinous practices of destroying LOCAL economies (immigration from the "south" is an example of that consequence) - is washing in its own shores in the pockets of americans themselves.
it began the moment the USA was conceived ....it began by DeSTROYING the LOCAL economies of the native indians along with the indians...and it simply spread its DESTRUCTIVENESS of local economies "globally".
it is not so much about "globalism" but whether that globalization is used by countries to enhance each other rather than to RAID and EXPLOIT each others' economies.
to be certain - economies will be destroyed when greater forces arrive - but the harm should be minimized as much as possible even if in the end - the mere clash or meeting of different cultures and economies could result in destruction .
and THAT"S when the real morality of countries come in- whether they will try to ALLEVIATE the effects of their trade with each other - rather THAN - as the USA has done
INCREASE the destructiveness for the purpose of advantaging itself.
as a very old Italian gentleman - so well traveled and accomplished - at age 103 and very clear in his mind - once told me:
"WHAT WE in the west have done is almost unforgivable...we have gone abroad in order to take the resources of other cultures to enrich ourselves BUT we didn't help them at all....and left them with nothing...i am a ROMAN...and i KNOW about EMPIRES because of my knowledge of our history...the United States is now the Modern Rome but it does not give the rest of the world things that Rome gave, bad as its Empire was against other people..the USA only takes".
excellent!
teddy -- True. Many of the "founders" were consciously trying to emulate the Roman republic. It became, of course, a "Roman" empire.
But, there is a non-ironic side to localization in the U.S. If the point is not to save the economy but to replace it, it takes the irony out of it right there. Also, even in the Roman Empire, there were many local economies. So there were in the U.S. (though not many anymore.) Things aren't simple.
To illustrate the complexity with a current example...when we were trying to get a real, enthusiastic localization project going here we went in with an open mind as to whom we could bring in. Many "conservative" local business people became involved. After workshops and so on, we were surprised and gratified to see letters to the editor from said conservatives praising localization and post petroleum efforts and claiming they had learned a lot.
Corporations, globalization, big business, and the "masters of the universe" are not popular in the U.S. The trouble is, many people are completely in the dark on how to deal with them and are unable to take apart the sophisticated propaganda. (And they don't know who their friends and enemies are.)
To further illustrate the complications, I should mention that the adversaries of localization were (not surprisingly) the libertarians, whereas in another project - assuring that our local authorities would act from their oaths of office and the Constitution in any incident which involved the "PATRIOT" Act - the libertarians were our staunch allies.
We need to be comfortable "containing multitudes" and acknowledging ambiguity.
Local acts challenge corporate power...
http://www.southsidepride.com/2009/11/articles/Small_acts.html
American Rights at Work has an online petition
Not in my Chamber
"For too long, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has fought for policies that undermine our country's values, our middle class, and our quality of life - policies that just benefit a small number of CEOs.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn't represent me. It's Not My Chamber"
http://action.americanrightsatwork.org/campaign/notmychamber?rk=Q1tQNJ4qqbz3E
it's like that hollywood movie with Al Pacino:
"THE DEVIL's ChAMBER" or was it titled "INNER CHAMBER?" something like that - where a young talented corporate junior was being groomed to be part of the "inner chamber"...
about corporate honchos scheming and running affairs with such ruthlessness....like some kind of CULT.
the US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE is really a CULT with DEVILISH motives.
it should be known as the "CHAMBER OF HORRORS". ..where they concot poison and other "magic potions" and spread them to the population - whether it's their "market fundamentalism"
their "efficiency dogma", their financing system, their punditry, their propaganda, their very corporatism itself, their "feasibility studies", their "cost and benefits" theories and religious mandates.....
they're nothing but a CULT believing in the GOSPEL of Capitalism which is really their way of saying:
SOME ARE WORTHIER than OTHERS in this world. WE are worthy to be YOUR masters.
Yep. Corporatism is a cult. It believes in all kinds of irrational things, in brainwashing, and in codes and passwords.
I know a lot of current corporate gurus sport jeans and the like these days, but the uniform of the male cult member is still basically a suit and tie - to easily identify each other. (Paul Bremer's Iraq "uniform" was priceless.)
I've always thought ties were very strange. What the hell is a tie anyway? I have a theory, but probably shouldn't post it on a forum that may be read by youngsters.
I'm glad I have an awesome job where my uniform is a t-shirt and jeans :-)
Congrats on the promotion zmann.... Now you'll have to at least wear t-shirts with a collar ;-)
Haha, thanks. May I never have a job where I am required to wear a tie!
A tie is a corporate SLAVE COLLAR which allows them to pull you around by the neck. Kids can read that, no?
True. It's also a symbol of an engorged...Well, it would be too obvious to wear it on the belt. An appropriate symbol of rape.
SOME ARE WORTHIER than OTHERS in this world. WE are worthy to be YOUR masters.--in a nutshell ! thanks teddy..
Excellent article.
Thank you Mr. Shuman. Sometimes, as much as I cannot say enough in favor of going local, I too think that we can have a good global economy rather than be too protectionist and only rely on a local economy. I am no supporter of "free" trade. In fact, I oppose it not only because it crushes small and local growth and business but as the author points out, it crushes the economies that we do our "free" trading with. A few days ago, I had an interesting discussion about self nurturance and altruism. On the one hand, being too selfish means causing unhappiness with others around you. Likewise, going too strictly local means not trying out ideas and products from other cultures around the world which could help you. On the other hand, trying to be too altruistic and appease everyone means causing unhappiness with yourself. Likewise, relying on foreign imports for everything means losing your local touch especially when you will need it the most. In the past, slavery was local but today, near-slavery via "free" trade has gone global and is yet kept out of sight to keep the electorate as ignorant as possible. The path to building a truly happy and heartful global economy starts with reviving and improving local economies. Next, local economies need to communicate with other local economies and share common and constructive ideas and innovations. This will pave the way to a true global economy for which we are all a part of. Most foreign economies have taken quality production far more seriously over quantity sales in sharp contrast to the US and we could import such ideas and learn as well as pass these ideas to our younger ones. This is an excellent article that should remind us that the American working class and the foreign working classes need to unite from local to global. Thank you again.
I might have written something like that not too long ago, Jennifer. I have come to think I was partly wrong.
When I buy foreign goods, which I still do on occasion, I generally cannot check the effects of my purchase on the quality of life in the source country - or really, often, in the United States. I have advantages as far as getting and processing information; still, outside of a few high-profile companies, all I really know is that the maquiladoras and their equivalents elsewhere are very, very bad.
That is not nearly enough to make intelligent decisions about the effects of my purchases on the environment and on other people's lives, and although I often find I have been mistaken, I don't think many people are doing better than I am.
That makes me think that protectionism is a good thing, and should not be confused with xenophobia. Tariffs should at least be high enough to account for the cost to the commons of burning carbon fuel to ship things overseas and paying customs officials to guard borders. Otherwise, taxpayers and consumers subsidize foreign industry.
I would point out too that buying local should mean buying union and buying green. Also, there are often considerable differences in shipping things around the USA, a fairly large country.
Here's to global info & citizens, local food and goods!
It is true that there have been a lot of laxing of the rules and enforcements on the labelling of where the products come from. Your second and third paragraphs are exactly why I think we need to restart and go local and rebuild our links to a better global economy not to mention keeping the environment in mind when we make economic decisions. I don't mind protectionism myself but I don't abuse the concept to justify xenophobia either unlike Lou Dobbs.
There are a few exceptions where I think protectionism wouldn't be helpful. One example is automobiles. The foreign cars are generally better than the American brands and I am sorry if I sound unAmerican saying this. Our nation has yet to attain the level of shame and carrying as other nations for our cruel nature in raping Mother Earth of her oil supplies just to power up the guzzlers. Up until recently, no American manufacturer that I knew of took improving the MPGs seriously until the foreign competition caught up to them. Isn't it sad that foreign auto manufacturers actually make good use of American made parts while American auto manufacturers import the "cheap" quality crap from China? Maybe protectionism would have fixed some of that. Another example is trying out healthy foods from other nations because it is not grown here for whatever reason. Mangos, Asian lentils, and hemp come to mind. The last one would be possible if only government would end the ban on cannabis. Overall, I believe in both going local and green and keeping trade fair and not "free" for the corporate elite.
I'll agree that nuance is important and reflexive decisions likely rash. But for now I think I will stick to method for the general case. It is just too hard for me to know who did what to whom for those lentils, healthy and tasty as they might likely are.
I remember driving through Mexican countryside and watching the cloud from a biplane drift and descend over workers bent between lines of crops.
Fertilizer?
Pesticide?
Likely someone with more experience would know. Ever happen in the States? Likely, I guess, and probably recently. But for all the problems Cesar Chavez had organizing farmworkers in California, his people at least were not killed and raped like those who protested IMF attempts to close the escuelas rurales in Oaxaca recently.
Most of the time I don't know where my lentils come from, honestly. With clothing and computers, it was pretty easy to wait until I could purchase what I wanted. Food has been harder, since I live in an urban area without a nearby coop, and only a few things are available at the local farmers' market, and most of those expensive nosegays rather than staples.
I think even a significant % shift would help a lot in these things.
At the very least, we should impose extra tariffs on countries which don't allow free labor organizing. China, Mexico and Columbia come to mind.
The only way to end "domination of the poor by global corporations" is to end the global capitalist system that is behind global poverty. The author says "this isn't going to be easy", but to imagine that we can change anything significantly by "helping" poor people re-localize their economies without changing the conditions that forced them to change in the first place is to imagine that things are much easier than they really are. The illusion that charity and piddly reforms will undermine the growing gap between rich and poor is deceptive at best, counter-productive at worst.
Right on Abiyot.
"Localism" is not enough, and may even be a delusion. Why? Because as long as there is exploitation, the exploiter will always have the urge, and the power, to expand to make bigger profits. Globalized exploitation is the inevitable result of capitalism.
Only when industries are co-operative, owned and controlled by workers and neighbors, will the MOTIVE for conquering other communities be gone.
Sure I would much rather live in a self determining local community, but that can only be achieved when we learn the arts of solidarity, both in struggle and in living and working with one another.
VERY GOOD POINTS and so well-considered - Abiyot and Laurence.
I also agree that merely avoiding "globalization" is not necessarily the way.
the world is too intertwined - and populations can not remain within borders forever and pretend that they are isolated from each other, EVEN were it conceivable that each nation - according to its geographic realities can be "self-sustaining" , desirable as that might be.
but we are probably too far beyond that. in fact - i am of the thinking that in the far future, should we all survive the rapaciousness that has become our reality - largely because of misguided economic and political dogmas which served to suppress or become obstacles to what I think should or IS the true destiny of humanity : our COMMON SHARED welfare and benevolence towards each other based on spreading understanding that our world is finite and old notions of "wealth" can no longer, some day, be tenable if we were to confine ourselves in this beautiful but already groaning planet of ours ...that IF we survive with more or less a discernible and even growing path towards an ENLIGHTENED civilization and species -- both celebrating our UNIQUE varieties WITHIN our COMMON heritage as a species and members of uncounted species sharing the planet -
that ONE DAY we SHALL explore the heavens - with JOY and common concern for each other.
BUT that is a long, long way in the future...the stuff of "science fiction" .
in the MEANTIME - in order to SURVIVE - CAPITALISM needs to be thrown away - whether in localism or globalism...or at the very least - whatever good benefits it has through the so-called motive of "greed and selfishness" needs to be given its proper due:
that its "benefits" are but a POOR substitute for common efforts and enlightened awareness, action and teaching towards a balance of living with each other - as individuals and as nations and peoples (WHILE we are still in the phase of "nations" - which in the scheme of TIME - is but a BLINK of the eye towards the future of being CITIZENS of "GAIA" of mother earth as ONE PEOPLE with rich varieties)
having ONE common and unified REASON for existence...
and that is to be AT ONE with each other and with our Mother Earth...
and THEN perhaps - using our species' wisdoms and knowledge and enlightenment and even childlike AWE at life, existence, and the Mystery of the Universe - and gratitude for it
perhaps we shall one day be able to look back - that ALMOST - a particularly VIRULENT system and thinking :
Capitalism , the "individual's" GREED and SELFISHNESS glorified beyond all else, VERY NEARLY destroyed our species or civilization -- by eventually arriving at a point when our Planet HAD to say:
"ENOUGH, children, ENOUGH...some of you have driven the rest to fight among themselves while YOU fight among yourselves trying to withhold what I, your Mother , has given ALL of you to share with WISDOM ....and you should use your knowledge to EXPLORE the heavens of which I BELONG where your imaginations will show you there is always going to be MORE than ENOUGH for ALL and EACH of you..if ONLY you used your knowledge to help each other - so you can ADVANCE to be able to FLY AND LIVE among the STARS! where you will find -- I have MANY MANY uncounted members of MY family just like me, so beautiful , so generous, that you will recognize that YOU ARE the children of the Universe...and I - just happen to be YOUR mother here".
CAPITALISM is a barbarism.
it IS a cancer.
when humankind looked at the heavens or was in awe of nature around him...and learned and taught -- humankind did not need "capitalism".
humankind also does not need capitalism to build Star Ships - nor to people other planets just like Earth in the far future
IF we survive our own greed and selfishness and parochialism.
we must remember that we ALL are "children of Africa".
even the Neanderthals are merely an offshoot , european as they are .
and our common ancestry - having dispersed itself like a RAINBOW after the rain -
REMAINS of ONE ancestry.
and that ancestry was given to us by our Mother Earth.
te first humans that explored the earth out of need and curiousity and courage -- formed the roots of our varieties , both of our ethnicities and cultures and 'systems'...
but what is that if nothing else but the way one takes the door and follows the path to the "world outside" - only to one day come home? or find a place that one calls home ?
sooner or later - we come home -- whether it's in our locality or among the stars.
but that "home" is only home -- if one finds something strangely, wonderfully FAMILIAR.
it is the Mother of all life. and that mother teaches that we MUST learn to live with each other and share - because
THERE IS SO MUCH PLENTY - if we only learned how to use our wits to see it.
i really believe in this - as the True Destiny of Humanity , and even , all species on earth.
I agree with you, Laurenceofberk, about cooperatives. It is essential. It's not only part-and-parcel of localization, it is easier to accomplish when there is a strong sense of community. That's one of the reasons localization is not a delusion.
Arry and others -- i REALLY must say i appreciate so much being part of the discussions here because i learn so much from each of you....everyone is so thoughtful and well-considered in their comments and really tries to find ways and suggestions and ideas and observations on how things could be better .
It makes me think :
Localization is the most NATURAL thing . where we grow up, live, work, play , or "stay" , or make new homes - that's our locality. we become part of it.
on a larger context the world is a global village of localities.
so - it can be said - BOTH are natural and necessary and inevitable.
maybe it is about a growing understanding that needs to be spread among people that the interests of localities are really similar to those of the "globe"...
or that one locality in the USA has similar interests in china - everyone needs a roof, clothes, food, good health, friends, family, a means of living, to feel wanted and needed, to share and know what one does is helpful....
out of this is really what we call "the global economy".
in local terms - our "localism".
they should not be clashing - they should instead be complementing and reinforcing each other.
that is my hope.
Wonderful comment, teddy. I think you are right on all your points and you say it so well. Localism is *our* form of the global economy.
I would just like to add that "localization" is a revolutionary concept. Probably many folks involved don't realize it, but it is counter to everything corporatism stands for. It is very likely that as it becomes widespread and threatening to the system of power and profit, we'll be in for rough times and a revolutionary and adamant spirit will be necessary. I hope I'm wrong, but already, of course, global corporatism tries to stamp out localism wherever it finds it in the world.
It's one of the most exciting things happening, but I encounter people who don't see "why they just won't let us do it" about local utilities, etc.
It will be a struggle, but struggle is good. Struggle requires coming together.
Hi Arry,
Yes, co-ops are essential. Without them localized businesses will not STAY localized, because the CEO's, and eventually boards of directors, will seek to increase their private profits by expanding into other locations. Workers' co-ops, on the other hand, since their are no personal profits to be made, are content to make alliances rather than to dominate. A case in point is the Mondragon network in Spain. There are ninety thousand workers involved, but they are decentralized into hundreds of independent co-operative businesses, who do share a common bank and technical services. Google Mondragon and prepare to be deeply impressed.
Our problem here, however, is that many people who talk about localization, Mr Shuman for example, do not mention co-operation. In today's world of instant communication, capitalist localization is an unstable impossibility.
Laurence
"Our problem here, however, is that many people who talk about localization, Mr Shuman for example, do not mention co-operation."
I agree it's a problem, but, from my experience, when we get deeply into localization on a radical level (it's kind of meaningless otherwise), people do start talking about cooperation. It seems to come with the territory.
Nevertheless, I agree that we can't take it for granted. I think we are on the same track.
This sharing idea holds great potential.
EXACTLY -- you stated it so simply and yet so elegantly because it really IS and should be the TRUE DESTINY of Humanity.
SHARING.
SHARE ideas, SHARE inventions, ShARE creations, SHARE food, SHARE land, SHARE service, SHARE caring, SHARE work, SHARE the fruits of work, SHARE dreams, SHARE experiences.
as people from a pacific island, i think it is new guinea, said recently upon noting that "western" or foreign consignments - corporate airplanes unloaded huge containers of Monsanto and "corporate farming" seeds to transform their island into a plantation said:
"now - they are going to make us live with Money - but we have long lived by sharing whatever we have...i wish they would leave us alone".
regarding the shifting of trade power - including quality of products:
americans need to begin to REALIZE that to continue thinking that "US MADE" products are necessarily or naturally "better" or higher quality -- IS NO LONGER ENTIRELY TRUE.
asian countries may still relatively pay lower wages - relative to the US dollar, which by the way is just a function of the Dollar Hegemony regime still operative and is fundemantally just an artificiality regime imposed through capitalism's dogmatic insistence backed up for at least a hundred years of militarism when most asian countries or south american or african countries were basically "caught flat-footed" and "asleep" to defend themselves from western "modernity" structures and therefore were basically savaged to become SUBJECT to , particularly US capitalism's "advanced" economic ravages but are only now "waking up" to begin to achieve their true potentials - asian countries may still relatively pay lower wages -
BUT in terms of QUALITY especially of "high-end" products - such as advanced car manufacturing that is more environmentally-considerate and energy-efficient -- the USA has ALREADY been left behind by countries such as China, Japan and South Korea who have used their trade necessities for their domestic economies and their exports to each other as emerging markets to evolve far more advanced technologies THAN the USA .
for example:
even if americans can claim that South Korea is "too protectionist" - and allows only limited amount of Cars imported by Korea - but "dumps" korean cars in the USA...
the fact is - generally Korean cars SELL in the USA NOT because of "low tariffs" as opposed to high tariffs on US cars...but because the south korean cars are simply MORe advanced and technologically HAVE caught up with american made cars.
how much MORE japan transfering technology or selling cars to China which japan needs as a huge market in comparison to the american market which so indebted it can't possibly consume japan's very advanced technology cars on a very large scale - or even if it could - the MENTALITY in the USA is still so opposed to the higher prices of very advanced , environmentally efficient cars - where in CHINA - if japan sells these very advanced cars - china's GOVERNMENT is willing to LOWEr the tariffs or taxes because the japanese cars FIT into the demands of china for very advanced technology to enhance its MASSIVE national program of transforming itself - even its present car market - from a high pollution one to a very energy efficient one - as incentive for both japan AND the domestic consumers and manufacturers?
the USA has NO such comparable national program or incentives.
THEREFORE the result is BETWEEN JAPAN and CHINA --
china has replaced the USA as JAPAN's BIGGEST trade partner by literally serving each other's MUTUAL INTERESTS.
Japan has the high technology that american car manufacturers can only Salivate at -
China has the market - so massive - AND the DEMAND to fill that market BUT TOWARDS energy efficiency and low pollution
and Japan Fulfils it with high technology, so does South Korea (also having china replace the USA as Korea's biggest trade partner)....
what is common to each of them?
the "producers" or "technology originators" offer VERY advanced technology, whether in cars , or robotics , or infrastructure such as building entire cities that are futuristic and self-sustaining, or the markets are there to consume THAT much more conscientuous product - and they all agree it is for mutual advantage , profits, advancement, prosperity.
WHAT HAS THE USA done in the meanwhile and when - all these decades , given the chance ?
absolutely LITTLE that was truly beneficial not just to other countries, especially weaker or less advanced ones, but even actually exploited them to KEEP Them "Permanently subjugated"
as The Former CIA "economic hitman" JOHN PERKINS described American's ENTIRE foreign policy , - which INCLUDES and IS ROOTED in its "trade bloc" and "chamber of commerce" Dogma.
which country is the world's ALREADY BIGGEST and MAIN PRODUCER of SOLAR ENERGY - without DEPENDENCE on US technology - but almost entirely from DOMESTIC research? and WIND POWER?
it is NOT the USA - it is CHINA....
which country has recently offered to FINANCE and transfer technology of solar power and wind power TO THE USA because some billionaires that originally were intrested BACKED OUT because of the short term lack of "profits" because the USA has NOT REAL NATIONAL philosophy of a MASSIVE refocusing from oil to such things as solar and wind power and renewables?
IT IS - once again CHINA..
so - many of the STILL CURRENT thinking among americans that america somehow RETAINS MUCh of the world's most advanced technologies
IS NO LONGER EVEN TRUE - it actually went AWAY with the USA's DOLLAR Dependability
several years ago....
as the USA walked like a Zombie - dreaming its dream world Notions of "being the best in all things that matter and are BIG"
when in reality - through ITS own paranoia about "transfer of our advanced tecynologies"
OTHER COUNTRIES had no recourse but to FIND and research and invent THEIR own ..and consequently
HOPSCOTCHED over the USA .
the story of the USA in relation to the rest of the "less advanced world" is this:
it is the story of the HARE bragging about how fast he is...and made big waves about it and lay down on his cushion , sipping his nice drink and gorging himself with the "fruits of my ingenuity" - while the turtle plodded along........
in economics, in national cohesion in a true sense (not this fake cohesion of war patriotism and jingoism about other countries so typical of americanISM) -
in technologies - it is the USA that is being left behind.
SOUTH KOREA imported no more than 6 thousand american MADE cars this year.
THE USA imported more than 500,000 South korean cars.
is it because the USA cars are too expensive from tariffs? and the reverse for korean cars?
of course not - it is because - for south koreans - the "luxury" cars of the USA are NO LONGER EVEN UP TO SNUFF!
it's exactly just like the USA model of economics. IT ISN"T UP TO SNUFF and is a Monumental FAILURE pretending to be a "success story".
SPECIFIC EXAMPLE:
CHINA is a huge market potential for car manufacturers:
china gives lower , incentivized tariffs for imported JAPANESE cars because these are so high technology and costly for japan - BUT china REWARDS japan with the market opening and lower tariffs - and also incentivizes importers in selling - as well as incentivizing domestic consumers with credits, or lower taxes etc...
so that more people will consume BUT TOWARDS better technology - better efficiency, better environmentally savvy cars...electrics, hybrids, the works....
IN CONTRAST - china imposes HIGHER TARIFFS on AMERICAN made cars as "luxuries" BECAUSE AMERICAN CARS ARE NOT AS EFFICIENT and do not satisfy china's mandates for environmentally, energy-efficient well designed cars.
see the difference?
in SHORT china , japan, south korea, other asian countries, south america - while having HUGE segments of their economies STILL behind -- are ALL already MOVING ON to the 22nd century
NOT the 21 st - the 22 nd century
while the USA is living its dream world "greatness" in the 20th century and 19 century - that A Neo Con Economist Francis Fukuyama in the 1990's declared as the example and model of the "END OF CIVILIZATION" - namely the US model FOREVER and EVER amen.
of course HE had a rude awakening soon after...and has recanted
realizing HOW BACKWARD the USA has become behind its erstwhile facade of prosperity and advancement in the 20th century that is NOW...
in contrast to countries like south korea, japan , hongkong, taiwan, singapore - china - even dubai , united arab emirates, saudi arabia, etc...
BACKWARD!
hell - its health care system alone is so backward BACKWARD...and so inefficient and costly in that inefficiency it's become a drag on the USA's OWN industries and businesses..
how "advanced" is that thinking anyway ?..
what else is there to say?.
japan already has robotics allowing people with paralysis to walk ..and that ain't an american "invention" .
and to sum - in the long perspective of time and civilizations....
even before the advent of computers - the world's most ACCURATE counting MACHINE was the chinese abacus.
our world's technological and scientific reality has become possible ONLY because of the most important SINGLE discovery:
it is NOT american, it is NOT european - it is ASIAN, and came from India almost 2,000 years ago...was transfered to the arabians - and the europeans learned how to "advance" beyond the primitive counting by the sundials and rulers!
it came NOT from "building things" such as bombs and guns...but from PURE THOUGHT.
it is the concept of ZERO .
without that - NO einstein, NO E=mc2, NO computers will exist. NO satellites flying to Jupiter, NO radio signals, NO genetic discoveries, NO flying machines, NO wall street transfering funds through the ether, NO internet, NO MOON LANDING...NO great ships on the oceans..NO radar, NO infra-red spectrum, NO measuring of the "pellets" which are light waves, and certainly NO "wall street dividends" and "cost and benefits" analysis so precious to capitalism with their graphs and diagrams ...
so MUCH for "western invented" advances.