User:Dietary Fiber

Detrimentalism

Capitalism is a dynamic system which changes over time; however, certain basic features remain constant. Perhaps most important is that the core regions clearly benefit the most from this arrangement. Through extremely high profits gained from international trade with the periphery, the core enriches itself. This, of course, does not mean that everybody in the periphery becomes poorer or that all citizens of the core become wealthier; peripheral landlords, for example, often gain great wealth as "middle agents" of the capitalist core. Overall, the development of the capitalist world economy is detrimental. The capitalist world system has brought about a skewed development in which economic and social disparities have increased.

The Flow of Globalization

The principal historical trend of the past two centuries, the flow of capital from the periphery to the core, was, most certainly, hastened by the industrial revolution, although the imperial trend of capital flowing to the imperial center is quite ancient.

Globalization is part of an ongoing trend of the world’s contemporary and historic economic development. Since the beginning of the 1990s, science and technology have developed rapidly (in a Scientific Revolution) and trans-national companies have continuously expanded their scale (in a Corporate Revolution). Globalization has obviously sped up. The influence of globalization on developing nations is quite different than its influence on the core nations. Economic inequality among nations is large and growing; the international division of labor is widening. The world is increasingly stratified. The "profits" derived from globalization are not fairly distributed between the poor and rich nations. The developed countries have apparent advantages in technology and have used their power to formulate the rules of international trade. These nations, not surprisingly, are the biggest beneficiaries of globalization. The developing countries are victims.

The Cost of "Progress"

Third World countries can’t afford to close themselves to the global economy. The results of that course of action can be seen in North Korea and Myanmar. By participating in globalization, the developing countries obtain certain technologies, thus accelerating their development.

The East Asian "Tiger" nations were able to escape one key problem of capitalism. In postwar South Korea and Taiwan, the military defeat of the Japanese, combined with US-backed competition against China and North Korea allowed each regime to prosper better than less "strategic" third-world partners. Deng's reforms shifted China's development strategy to an emphasis on light industry. China is now going through an industrial revolution of its own.

In India, around half the population lives at under $1 a day. 90%, of Indians (900,000,000 people), live on less than $2 a day. The peripheral nations are suffering from consumption contraction. The economies of the periphery have gone from bad to worse. The United Nations Report on Human Development shows that the trend of globalization has made the poor poorer and the rich richer. Most of the world’s population lives in the underdeveloped countries.

The Rise of Militant Leftism

Without the synchronous development of the developing countries, not only will the economic development of the developing countries be seriously curtailed, the economies of the developed countries will also be faced with serious difficulties. Look at the radicalization of the Islamic World. Look at the resurgence of the militant left. Can you guess which nation will react to such developments with a military solution?

The Global Geopolitical Shift

The establishment of an equitable international economic order, and not hegomonic imperialism, is essential to economic globalization. We need the sort of economic globalization that will improve the world's economy, rather than damage it. Alas, the global balance of power has become increasingly out of balance and regional crises are growing. The United States is attempting to establish a "New World Order". Innumerable historical facts demonstrate that this is bad policy. It isn’t unrealistic to expect the global geopolitical balance will shift rapidly, radically, and violently.

The United States is in decline. The United States has been fading as a global power since the 1970s, and the rise of American nationalism has merely accelerated this decline. Arrogance, pride, and greed are all deadly sins. Although , over the last 200 years, the United States acquired a considerable amount of ideological credit, it is quickly running into ideological debt. There is little doubt that the United States will continue to decline over the next decade. The real question is not whether U.S. hegemony is waning but whether the United States can step down gracefully.