Originally Posted by
antaeus
Curiously... speaking of Japan and Korea.
I just made a couple of purchases on Amazon. I have an old Macbook I'm wanting to use as a spare so I bought some ram and a new SSD.
The ram was sold through Amazon UK, and shipped from a distribution centre in Poland. According to the label, it was assembled in Mexico from parts made in who knows where, and the brand is Korean. It arrived in Australia 5 days after purchase. Even during an extreme lockdown. When I made the purchase, all taxes, duties, tariffs and shipping costs were hidden from me. I just paid the listed price. This is in essence what the Economist meant by globalisation. Irrespective of local trade policy, my purchase was made in a way that appeared to me as if the world was all one jurisdiction.
In that respect, what ever happens from now with regards to pushback, I think there is a Pandora's box at play here that is going to be difficult to put back. Through my one purchase, jobs were potentially supported in some small way in the UK, Poland, Mexico, South Korea and Australia. Politicians pockets were greased, each of those countries has large industrial parks that have been built and promoted for the jobs they'll create and rolling them back is a tough sell.
For me the real question isn't whether globalisation is right, or whether it is going to happen - because it's too late for the latter and the former is irrelevant because of it. It is how do we moderate any negative affects of it. Even now, as the world publicly seeks to unhitch itself from dependence on China or the US or whoever, international trade has grown. For example, this year China publicly pushed back against Australian coal, wine, barley, iron, yet Australian trade with China grew by 2.5 billion dollars. It's insatiable.
Going back to my Amazon purchase, how do we ensure that taxes are paid in each of UK, Poland, Mexico, South Korea and Australia that enable governments to function, how to we ensure that labour practices in each exist to a level sustainable for each of those economies? As of now, these considerations haven't been the primary concern, and that has lead to offshoring without balance, and ultimately to protest votes such as that which brought Trump to power.
How do you offshore production while keeping local jobs? To a degree in Australia and New Zealand this has already happened. When the UK joined the EU, both were thrown out in the cold and had to restructure their economies. The 1970s through to the 1990s were tough times as traditional industries that focused on the UK's needs were closed and new industries developed. But it happened, and now Australia and New Zealand are more well known for their unique local products rather than duplication of what other countries can make. Car factories closed, vineyards opened. In the United States this process stalled for what ever reason.