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This is an absurd proposition. Open borders and globalisation have uplifted countless millions from extreme poverty. Just because the Capitalist Elite also support open borders doesn't mean leftists shouldn't
ReplyDelete80% from China.
DeleteAfrican countries did a lot better in 60. and 70. with annual gdp per capita growth about 1,5% than between 1980 and 2009 with astonishing 0,2% growth
Agree. It's clear that for the least developed nations, open borders and free trade have made virtually no difference at all. In this respect, the measures taken consistent with the Lima Declaration after the 1970's can be seen to have largely failed, when measured against the stated intent of the Declaration.
DeleteThe beneficiaries, as you say, have been China and India - nations that weren't among the most disadvantaged in the 1970's, but which retain substantial levels of poverty today.
The biggest winners, though, have been international corporations who retained access to wealthy western markets, but were also able to access low cost labour and low/no regulatory production environments.
The great absurdity is that so many of the mainstream left have bought the idea that this is somehow 'progressive'. The genuine socialists of pre WW2 would be equally appalled and confused by this development.
Just because some (some!) right wing conservatives support borders and nations doesn't mean that thinking leftists (the few clustered around this site) shouldn't.
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Since hypocrisy has become a defining characteristic of modern progressivism, we shouldn't be surprised that progressive values align so nicely with those of the elite.
ReplyDeleteThis is very pointed.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit you have made a much stronger case over the past year than I first thought LK that open borders is part of crony capitalism not just corporate PR.
The Soviet Union was the most rightist state in Europe and the Soviet people were the most leftist ideologically.
ReplyDeleteAnd the western working class are the kulaks. An aristocracy of labour in the words of Stalin, a group of selfish class interest according to Mises. Now why is this one group of workers to be afforded any advantage over any other group of workers simply because we share a border, culture and meaningful relationship with these people? It's nothing more than the sheer nepotism of being members of our own British family.
Do we have a genuine proof that free-trade made ordinary lives better in china or india ?
ReplyDeleteI mean : do we have evidence that whenever living standards have risen under free-trade, shere technical progress in a closed economy could not have delivered equivalent or better results ?