Geronimo Pratt
22nd January 2006, 01:59
This is my favorite part of my research paper on whether foreign animosity towards America is justified or not, i spent half the paper talking on military interventions and the other half on corporate globalization which is easily the better written half, give me your thoughts on it, go to my website if u wanna see the full paper http://www.anti-globalization.tk/
Supporters of US global hegemony claim that Americas economic and social influence has lifted many out of poverty while contributing towards the betterment of humanity. That Americas spreading of technology and markets has been a positive in developing Third World nations. Once we go over what is popularly called globalization nowadays and how the traditional debates have masked the reality of imperialism we can see clearly the main source for expanding global poverty and inequality. Globalization is the term used to describe corporate neoliberalism by many of its dissenters and used for a multitude of issues by the mainstream media, including the elimination of trade tariffs, the outsourcing of American jobs, and the hegemony of the world cultures. The nationalistic attitude of the masses is manipulated by mainstream liberals to turn people against corporate globalization by focusing on these minute issues while distorting or ignoring the larger frame of the overall debate. Under the banner of free trade to put the people of the world on an even level, the corporatists force Third World countries to eliminate trade barriers while the developed countries hypocritically maintain the protectionist tariffs that had ironically assisted in their own development. This creates a wave of surplus goods and agricultural crops that flood the markets of the developing nation, eliminating many jobs from domestic small businesses and farmers that cant compete. Though the devastating affect this doctrine alone has on the economies of the adherent nations, it is merely scratching the surface of the overall oppression and naked exploitation brought about by the system of neoliberalism.
Beyond eliminating trade tariffs between nations, worker and environmental laws and regulations, taxes on the rich and corporations, minimum wage, social spending, nationalization of social services and resources, and other means of assisting the poor and weak of society are seen as trade barriers that must be liberalized to increase foreign investment. The working class poor are set in a race to the bottom for who will work for the least wages and worst working conditions; worsening the lives of workers everywhere. (Structural Adjustment Policies) The result of the weakened labor regulations and minimum wage requirements spreading globally is in the fact half the world, nearly three billion people, lives on less than two dollars a day. 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day. (Poverty Facts and Stats) The free movement of public capital is signature of these nations as billions in tax dollars are raided by corrupt leaders and multinational corporations and transferred to foreign bank accounts. (Structural Adjustment Policies) Large loans were forced onto the public of Third World nations, due to the lack of public consent or democratic consultation of their US-imposed puppet dictators, by international banks so as to subject the people to debt while the money from the loans was transferred to the wealthy and US based multinational corporations. The multinationals received large contracts, mostly by force of the World Bank, which were overblown projects to be carried out for increase of economic growth while the unsuspecting country took in huge loans that they could never repay. The goal of the construction and energy contractors was to convince them that the economic growth would have brought about far more than what was necessary to repay the loans but in reality, the economic growth never reached the height predicted in inflated economic predictions and never benefited more than the richest in society. Like mafia loan sharks, the World Bank/IMF reached in for their pound of flesh on the indebted countries by imposing structural adjustment policies that relieved part of the debt. The structural adjustment policies force the principles of neoliberalism, described above, which rob the people of control of their resources and take away any sort of government benefit or protection of its people and country. Thus heavily indebted countries become stuck within the trap of imperialism due to the greed of their puppet leaders and elite who rake in large profits along with the multinational contractors at the behest of the public fund. (Perkins ix-xxi)
The interest-free or low-interest loan is made to seem attractive by the Third World leaders than, just like modern day credit card companies, when the bare minimum payments are made on the loans the interest rates suddenly shoot up trapping them into debt slavery forever. What is called debt servicing is when the World Bank eliminates the need of the country to pay back the basic loan but just pay back interest on a regular routine. This is very profitable for western nations and their private companies. The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants. Foreign aid never reaches the poorest of areas and barely reaches anywhere besides private contracting companies and international bank accounts; it is merely used as debt relief that is transferred from the U.S. treasury to U.S. banks and often comes with the price tag of forced trade liberalization. (Global Ghetto)
The IMF imposes currency devaluation as economic medicine for Third World countries in debt. This causes people who have worked their whole life saving up to suddenly lose the value of their money overnight and slip into poverty. Once the currency is devaluated the country is then given instructions from the IMF on fighting inflation while ignoring that devaluation was the primary cause of it. It instructs the nation to export more of its resources which go onto the global market in a huge price war against other nations that are just coming onto the market with similar cash crops. What results is the resources from poorer nations become cheaper which is good for Western companies and consumers with the amount of exports needing to increase just to maintain a stable currency and earn foreign exchange to pay off debts. Governments therefore must spend less and decrease domestic consumption, making drastic cuts on social programs rather than military budget due to the highly lucrative defense contracts earned by western companies. They also cut public sector jobs which has a double effect on government spending and consumption; if people dont have jobs to make money then they cant consume. (Structural Adjustment Policies) The lack of consumption in developing countries can be seen in the fact that 20% of the population in the developed nations consumes 86% of the worlds goods. (Poverty Facts and Stats) Overtime the value of labor decreases, capital flow becomes volatile, unemployment increases, consumption decreases, inequality increases, poverty increases, social unrest increases, and eventually the entire economy collapses through capital flight from the removal or decreasing of financial regulations. This was seen in the late 90s when the economies of the Asian tigers and many other nations collapsed. (Structural Adjustment Policies)
Foreign animosity towards America is a result of the US governments policies and the effect they have on the state of the world today. We pump toxins, chemicals, and major pollutants into the waters and fumes into the atmospheres of the Third World nations who host our multinational corporations. We build dams on the rivers of poor, indigenous farmers and take lands of native tribes to cut down their forests for development, practically killing off the ancient cultures and endangered animals that reside within. According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty and they die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (a quarter of the worlds countries) is less than the wealth of the worlds three richest people combined. In 1960, the 20% of the worlds people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% in 1997, 74 times as much. A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the worlds poorest 2.5 billion people with the combined wealth of the worlds 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries are $146 billion. (Poverty Facts and Stats) We see the results of the globalization of the American system today running rampant and destroying the world and its people. The elitists of our nation have wiped out, enslaved, and impoverished entire races and groups of people for the sake of attaining and maintaining this global system that subjects the human race to misery for the wealth of a few. It is not too late to overthrow this system and replace it with one that is beneficial for humanity as a whole and the environment of our planet as well before it destroys the human race and the whole world with it. The apathy of the American people towards global issues has led to growing foreign animosity against us as well for allowing our government to do what it does and often praising them as well. We must make a safe, peaceful, just, and equal world for our children to live in; you cant change the past but you can make the future.
Works Cited
1. Asadi, Muhammad. Constructing a Global Ghetto: Racism, the West,
and the Third World. RationalReality.com. 2000. http://rationalreality.50webs.com/ghetto.htm (12/1/05).
2. Perkins, John. Confessions of An Economic Hitman. San Francisco, CA:
Berrett-Koehler Publishing, 2004
3. Shah, Anup. Poverty Facts and Stats. Global Issues. 11 June 2005.
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp (11/03/05).
4. Shah, Anup. Structural Adjustment-A Major Cause of Poverty. Global
Issues. 24 June 2005. http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/S...RacetotheBottom (http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/SAP.asp#ASpiralingRacetotheBottom) (12/01/05).
Supporters of US global hegemony claim that Americas economic and social influence has lifted many out of poverty while contributing towards the betterment of humanity. That Americas spreading of technology and markets has been a positive in developing Third World nations. Once we go over what is popularly called globalization nowadays and how the traditional debates have masked the reality of imperialism we can see clearly the main source for expanding global poverty and inequality. Globalization is the term used to describe corporate neoliberalism by many of its dissenters and used for a multitude of issues by the mainstream media, including the elimination of trade tariffs, the outsourcing of American jobs, and the hegemony of the world cultures. The nationalistic attitude of the masses is manipulated by mainstream liberals to turn people against corporate globalization by focusing on these minute issues while distorting or ignoring the larger frame of the overall debate. Under the banner of free trade to put the people of the world on an even level, the corporatists force Third World countries to eliminate trade barriers while the developed countries hypocritically maintain the protectionist tariffs that had ironically assisted in their own development. This creates a wave of surplus goods and agricultural crops that flood the markets of the developing nation, eliminating many jobs from domestic small businesses and farmers that cant compete. Though the devastating affect this doctrine alone has on the economies of the adherent nations, it is merely scratching the surface of the overall oppression and naked exploitation brought about by the system of neoliberalism.
Beyond eliminating trade tariffs between nations, worker and environmental laws and regulations, taxes on the rich and corporations, minimum wage, social spending, nationalization of social services and resources, and other means of assisting the poor and weak of society are seen as trade barriers that must be liberalized to increase foreign investment. The working class poor are set in a race to the bottom for who will work for the least wages and worst working conditions; worsening the lives of workers everywhere. (Structural Adjustment Policies) The result of the weakened labor regulations and minimum wage requirements spreading globally is in the fact half the world, nearly three billion people, lives on less than two dollars a day. 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day. (Poverty Facts and Stats) The free movement of public capital is signature of these nations as billions in tax dollars are raided by corrupt leaders and multinational corporations and transferred to foreign bank accounts. (Structural Adjustment Policies) Large loans were forced onto the public of Third World nations, due to the lack of public consent or democratic consultation of their US-imposed puppet dictators, by international banks so as to subject the people to debt while the money from the loans was transferred to the wealthy and US based multinational corporations. The multinationals received large contracts, mostly by force of the World Bank, which were overblown projects to be carried out for increase of economic growth while the unsuspecting country took in huge loans that they could never repay. The goal of the construction and energy contractors was to convince them that the economic growth would have brought about far more than what was necessary to repay the loans but in reality, the economic growth never reached the height predicted in inflated economic predictions and never benefited more than the richest in society. Like mafia loan sharks, the World Bank/IMF reached in for their pound of flesh on the indebted countries by imposing structural adjustment policies that relieved part of the debt. The structural adjustment policies force the principles of neoliberalism, described above, which rob the people of control of their resources and take away any sort of government benefit or protection of its people and country. Thus heavily indebted countries become stuck within the trap of imperialism due to the greed of their puppet leaders and elite who rake in large profits along with the multinational contractors at the behest of the public fund. (Perkins ix-xxi)
The interest-free or low-interest loan is made to seem attractive by the Third World leaders than, just like modern day credit card companies, when the bare minimum payments are made on the loans the interest rates suddenly shoot up trapping them into debt slavery forever. What is called debt servicing is when the World Bank eliminates the need of the country to pay back the basic loan but just pay back interest on a regular routine. This is very profitable for western nations and their private companies. The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants. Foreign aid never reaches the poorest of areas and barely reaches anywhere besides private contracting companies and international bank accounts; it is merely used as debt relief that is transferred from the U.S. treasury to U.S. banks and often comes with the price tag of forced trade liberalization. (Global Ghetto)
The IMF imposes currency devaluation as economic medicine for Third World countries in debt. This causes people who have worked their whole life saving up to suddenly lose the value of their money overnight and slip into poverty. Once the currency is devaluated the country is then given instructions from the IMF on fighting inflation while ignoring that devaluation was the primary cause of it. It instructs the nation to export more of its resources which go onto the global market in a huge price war against other nations that are just coming onto the market with similar cash crops. What results is the resources from poorer nations become cheaper which is good for Western companies and consumers with the amount of exports needing to increase just to maintain a stable currency and earn foreign exchange to pay off debts. Governments therefore must spend less and decrease domestic consumption, making drastic cuts on social programs rather than military budget due to the highly lucrative defense contracts earned by western companies. They also cut public sector jobs which has a double effect on government spending and consumption; if people dont have jobs to make money then they cant consume. (Structural Adjustment Policies) The lack of consumption in developing countries can be seen in the fact that 20% of the population in the developed nations consumes 86% of the worlds goods. (Poverty Facts and Stats) Overtime the value of labor decreases, capital flow becomes volatile, unemployment increases, consumption decreases, inequality increases, poverty increases, social unrest increases, and eventually the entire economy collapses through capital flight from the removal or decreasing of financial regulations. This was seen in the late 90s when the economies of the Asian tigers and many other nations collapsed. (Structural Adjustment Policies)
Foreign animosity towards America is a result of the US governments policies and the effect they have on the state of the world today. We pump toxins, chemicals, and major pollutants into the waters and fumes into the atmospheres of the Third World nations who host our multinational corporations. We build dams on the rivers of poor, indigenous farmers and take lands of native tribes to cut down their forests for development, practically killing off the ancient cultures and endangered animals that reside within. According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty and they die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (a quarter of the worlds countries) is less than the wealth of the worlds three richest people combined. In 1960, the 20% of the worlds people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% in 1997, 74 times as much. A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the worlds poorest 2.5 billion people with the combined wealth of the worlds 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries are $146 billion. (Poverty Facts and Stats) We see the results of the globalization of the American system today running rampant and destroying the world and its people. The elitists of our nation have wiped out, enslaved, and impoverished entire races and groups of people for the sake of attaining and maintaining this global system that subjects the human race to misery for the wealth of a few. It is not too late to overthrow this system and replace it with one that is beneficial for humanity as a whole and the environment of our planet as well before it destroys the human race and the whole world with it. The apathy of the American people towards global issues has led to growing foreign animosity against us as well for allowing our government to do what it does and often praising them as well. We must make a safe, peaceful, just, and equal world for our children to live in; you cant change the past but you can make the future.
Works Cited
1. Asadi, Muhammad. Constructing a Global Ghetto: Racism, the West,
and the Third World. RationalReality.com. 2000. http://rationalreality.50webs.com/ghetto.htm (12/1/05).
2. Perkins, John. Confessions of An Economic Hitman. San Francisco, CA:
Berrett-Koehler Publishing, 2004
3. Shah, Anup. Poverty Facts and Stats. Global Issues. 11 June 2005.
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp (11/03/05).
4. Shah, Anup. Structural Adjustment-A Major Cause of Poverty. Global
Issues. 24 June 2005. http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/S...RacetotheBottom (http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/SAP.asp#ASpiralingRacetotheBottom) (12/01/05).