Thanks for your feedback!

I guess I’m guilty of using a divisive or polarizing title to get people to read the post… My apologies.

The “curse” I was primarily talking about is not globalization or free-trade in general, but the specific curse of some people producing our goods in slavery. By making a few alterations in our purchasing habits, we can turn a would-be curse (supporting slavery or other exploitative working conditions, even if doing so unknowingly on our part) into a blessing by choosing to support goods that we know are produced with sustainable labor.

To clarify, I don’t think globalization is a “necessary evil”. I’m very supportive of many (perhaps even most) aspects of globalization and free-trade.

A few examples…

I prefer to buy Japanese cars (even if most of them have been made in America).

I have had a number of what I believe to be mutually positive and beneficial experiences with outsourcing IT labor in various capacities to developed and emerging economies — the UK, India, Argentina, Philippines, and Brazil are the main ones that come to mind.

And, I’m sure many more items I purchase every day are the result of positive aspects of globalization.

All I was intending to say is that sometimes unchecked globalization and free trade can lead to exploitative conditions. I don’t think that’s the default mode of operation, and I think in many cases free trade can provide great opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be available to those in poverty.

Unfortunately, it can become more difficult to know about or see exploitative conditions when they’re so far removed from us geographically. But where we know there are exploitative conditions we should stand up and stand against that. And if there are free-trade options pursue them.

In many respects I think there are numerous positive aspects to globalization. I’m sorry my polarizing title misrepresented my views – and thank you for commenting so I could clarify!

I agree that there are major problems with some of the goods we purchase from around the world. There are, sadly, very evil people in this world who are taking advantage of others — the child slaves one horrible example and we should do what we can – as little as it may seem – to bring this to an end. I believe, however, that “globalization” is not the curse that causes these things.

For every case that someone has been taken advantage of, I am certain there are countless others who have been lifted out of poverty by the onset of global free trade which has given them a whole world of people to buy their goods.

Just as families are richer and better off when they choose not to produce everything by themselves, and choose to cooperate and trade with their neighbors, and communities are richer when they cooperate and trade with other communities blessed with different natural advantages, so do nations get richer when they freely trade with the other nations of the world. An arbitrary political boundary doesn’t change the fact that we are better off by trade.

Anyway – I know the main point of your post was regarding buying goods produced by sustainable labor and that you are advocating buying fair trade (neither points of which I disagree with) – therefore I’m probably ‘arguing’ against a position you don’t even hold, but I got the sense reading it plus the fb comment that you are treating globalization as a necessary evil. I happen to believe it is rather a great blessing — one which is at times corrupted (like every good thing on earth) but is at its heart something that makes everybody (or least a lot of us) better off.

Thanks for the article! Very interesting as it’s always rewarding to think about such issues. My apologies if I misconstrued your views too much!