Globalization and Consumerism

Globalization and free trade is needed and a great force to better the plight of people around the world.  It theoretically allows goods and services to be built and delivered anywhere in the world.  It also theoretically allows for the free movement of labour across borders.  Finally it theoretically drops the price of goods and services.  All great stuff that I support 110% - in theory.

My wife is currently reading a book entitled The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.  She has had it for two days or so and is already half-way through it.  This is a good sign that it is an interesting read.  Having said that she has put the book down at the end of the day and said that it is discouraging - that our world is discouraging.  I gather the book talks about how to make a quick buck.  How to use others to free up your time.  How to use other people's creativity to advance your wealth.  This all makes sense to me as this is what free trade and globalization permits.  It seems, though, that the book is all about making a buck.  Not about caring for others, about longer-term views.  It is a book about how to be a nouveau riche.  The stereotype of nouveau riche, of course, is to be egocentric and self-serving.  So my wife has read it and at the same time been a little discouraged.

Yesterday I was looking at this pencil sitting on our kitchen table.  One of my children was given it by a school mate.  It is a lead pencil covered with a plasticized coating.  It has red hearts on a white background.  My thought was: When I was a child if you wanted a pencil you had the choice of one - it was school bus yellow, made of wood and you could get an HB, 2B, 2H and a few other hardness levels.  That was it.  In the end a pencil is a pencil, right?  It doesn't matter what colour is on it or what pattern.  Can you write with it?  Yes!  Great.

So what the heck does this have to do with globalization and consumerism.  Globalization has dropped the price of the goods we buy (basics as well as luxuries).  The prices have dropped because it costs less to produce them.  So now, rather than just needing one pencil I can have the luxury of having ten pencils to choose from in my desk drawer (or spread around the house).  Great stuff eh?  I can have three TVs rather than one.  Great!  I can buy so much food that it can spoil away in the corner of my fridge for a few months without me even noticing it.

Consumerism seems engrained in us.  Getting the deal.  Even though we could spend less today we still spend as much, if not more.  Rather than save, invest in creating more jobs, invest in spending time at home (hmmm...4-Hour Workweek) we decide to spend on stuff.

Globalization and free trade could be great long-term solutions if only we could at the same rid ourselves of the need to consume more and more.

Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!