Thursday, March 20, 2014

globalization has turned on its western creators


telegraph |  A number of years ago, a story went around that sprouts were being transported from across Britain to an East Anglian airport, from where they were sent to Poland for washing and packaging before being air-freighted back again for sale in supermarkets located but a few miles from where they were grown. 
This is an extreme example of the sometimes insane supply-chain dynamics of modern-day globalisation, but it speaks loudly to widespread disillusionment with the once-unquestioned blessings of free trade. From the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements of the US to the renewed rise of populist politics in Europe, the backlash is everywhere to be seen.
In real terms, Americans are on average no better off than they were 30 years ago; in Britain, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says that our real disposable incomes are in the midst of a 14-year freeze. Vast tracts of gainful employment in textiles, potteries, shoe-making, machine tools and many other industries have disappeared, to be replaced by… well, not very much at all outside the now languishing financial services industry and the housing market.
The West’s competitive advantage, even in hi-tech industries such as pharmaceuticals and aerospace, is being fast whittled away too. The welfare and health entitlements to which we have become accustomed look ever more unaffordable, while the final-salary pensions that workers could once expect as reward for a lifetime of service are now confined to the public sector – and those too will surely be gone within 10 years. It is small wonder that the benefits of free trade are now so widely questioned.
Critics of globalisation, such as Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate in economics, used to focus on the supposed harm that Western-inspired trade liberalisation was inflicting on the developing world. Few would these days think this the correct way of looking at the problem.

On the contrary, by opening up the global economy to Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, the West seems to have unleashed a doomsday machine which threatens ever-greater destruction of its own living standards. After a brief number of years in which globalisation made everything seemingly cheaper, the terms of trade have moved badly against the West. 

Sure enough, the world as a whole is getting a whole lot richer. In the past decade alone, the global economy has doubled in size. But most of the benefits of this explosion in activity have gone to the developing world and, in the West, the already rich, highly educated and talented. The wealth divide has widened to record levels almost everywhere. 

Western business leaders embraced globalisation not just because it opens up new markets, introduces new ideas and weeds out unproductive, protected sectors, but because it allows for lower production costs and so bigger profits. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to them that if you don’t provide Western consumers with jobs, they’ll be priced out of the market and the mother economy will wither and die. 

The principles of free trade are the same for nations as they are for individuals. Rather than trying to produce everything we need to live, most of us choose to work in quite specialist forms of employment, the product of which we sell to others. We then use the proceeds to buy in other goods and services. Nations ought similarly to derive a collective economic benefit by specialising in the things they do best and then trading with others for the rest. 

But the system only works if everyone plays by a common set of rules and standards.

31 comments:

makheru bradley said...

I understood the gist of the article. It does not explain what has happened to the Afrikan American family since 1965.You stated that there was a loss of "intergenerational transfers of fundamental competencies." That implies that these transfers took place at one time among Afrikan Americans at a higher rate than now. Based on the example you've provided I'm assuming that you were speaking in terms of the general American family. I'm focused specifically on the Afrikan American family.

CNu said...

Those knowledge transfers DID take place at MUCH higher rates during my childhood and upbringing, and it wasn't only fathers-to-sons, it was uncles-to-sons, grandfathers-to-grandsons, and even neighbor fathers to neighboring boys etc..,

A family with 9 kids lived directly behind us and the father there was a master carpenter. His next door neighbor was a operated a farm, drove race cars, and operated a lawn care business still operated in Wichita by his son, one of the boys a few years older than me in my old neighborhood. This list goes on, and on, and on..., By the time I returned to Wichita in 1988-89, most of this old neighborhood inter-generational knowledge transfer system had gone away.

We played in the yards, driveways, garages, backyards, etc..., and the presence of these men was a constant, and they always had things for us to do, and/or would spend time with us talking stuff, shooting baskets, changing gaskets. I'll go out on a limb and state my suspicion that your upbringing was similar in many regards.

Black families are and have always been general American families post civil war up through the modern era. What happened over the last 30-40 years is a special case in which black complicity in cultural degeneracy cannot be eliminated from the mix.

makheru bradley said...

I didn't dodge the question. You didn't understand the answer. Nothing is unintentional in the system of white supremacy. When one cycle collapses, it's refined into another cycle. Afrikan Enslavement > American Apartheid > New Jim Crow (for lack of a better term). The rise of the Welfare State coupled with the unemployment of Black males in urban America was one aspect of the refinement into the current cycle of white supremacy.

BigDonOne said...

We are talking about America, here. If blacks were really better grunt workers, Asia would be importing them with attractive offers, like the Arabs do with Bangladeshi's to get all their dirty work done.


TBC had a good lengthy description in the early chapters of why higher IQ pays off even for grunt workers, and why employers prefer smarter workers for these jobs, even though on the surface the need might not be readily apparent. (you *really* should have read it) Has to do with ability to scope. plan and combine various grunt tasks and be more productive, as opposed to care-less-lazy aimless muddling thru the day. Talking tendencies here, not absolutes.


You are right - oowbreeders tend to be of inferior IQ. . . .regardless of ethnicity. TBC had the data proving that one, too. Blacks breedoow at higher percentages than white because of lower average group IQ. This is not rocket science, it's Intellectual Genetics 101.

woodensplinter said...

Makheru, is it your contention that Daniel Patrick Moynihan was either mistaken or ill-intended?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Family:_The_Case_For_National_Action
http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/06/13/190982608/moynihan-black-poverty-report-revisited-fifty-years-later

CNu said...

From the wiki that John linked:Moynihan argued that the rise in single-mother families was not due to a lack of jobs but rather to a destructive vein in ghetto culture that could be traced back to slavery and Jim Crow discrimination. Though black sociologist E. Franklin Frazier had already introduced the idea in the 1930s, Moynihan's argument defied conventional social-science wisdom. As he wrote later, "The work began in the most orthodox setting, the U.S. Department of Labor, to establish at some level of statistical conciseness what 'everyone knew': that economic conditions determine social conditions. Whereupon, it turned out that what everyone knew was evidently not so."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Family:_The_Case_For_National_Action

makheru bradley said...

The intentions of Moynihan have been debated since the report was released. I'm more focused on systemic action, reaction, and inaction relating to the problem he identified.

CNu said...

I'm shamelessly "victim-blaming" here. My parents were married until death did them part. I'm married now 25 years with every intention of the same end. We weathered the storm of significant economic setback, and recovered to pursue the grand 2.0 adventure, (in progress) How inna phug, millions of mexican, somali, sudanese, (the lost boys are big in KC) going to come to the U.S., lacking even the basic language skills, yet hold together they nuclear families and obtain gainful employment by any means necessary? In that context, I'm not seeing any acceptable excuse for the systemic characterological and cultural failure which finds the rates of black basterdy running in excess of 75%.

How do you account for these struggling immigrant serfs with minimal education, skills, and language abilities being able to show up and survive while native black american men epic failing on both the nuclear family and gainful employment fronts? Oh yeah, I forget, the mystical asila of the system of white supremacy which somehow manages to overlook the aztecs and the africans who show up, go to work, and get it done.

Constructive_Feedback said...

Help me out CNu - because I really can't figure you out sometimes, depending on the issue.
Why - do you think that the "American Left" believes that they "OWN" the issue of "Income Inequality"?
As I shed an internal tear listing to "Black Wing Grievance And Political Opportunism Talk Radio" in Atlanta, Philly and Chicago - IT BECOMES EVIDENT:
The very same people who COLLECTED THE VALUABLES from "The Least Of These" for the past 50 years in order to build up their present "Progressive Political Fortress" locally - are the very same people who seem to EVADE all notions of "INCUMBENCY" by which most rational people would say that they FAILED TO PROVIDE UPWARD THRUST for the "Least Of These".
I know that you think that I am tragically partisan - but in truth I am a strict "EQUALITARIAN".
The very same seats of POWER that OPPRESSED "The Least Of These" with fire hoses, police dogs and strike breaking armed extensions of the "State" are NOW CONTROLLED by the people who "The Least Of These" PUT INTO POWER.
Why then, sir, should we all agree to SHIFT OUR FOCUS OUTWARD - toward the NATIONAL GOVERNMENT as a source of "Progressive - Redistributionist Policies" and thus "Social Justice?"
Why should we assume that the present slate of AMERICAN CORPORATIONS are the exclusive "Job Creators" - YET few of these same aggrieved people can see that just as MICROSOFT was formed out of scratch and ultimately took market share from IBM, WordPerfect, Novell and HP....................there exists MORE market forces that WERE NEVER CREATED because those who think as "LABOR" could not envision the "use case" by which they TRAIN UP their human resources through the academy to become entrepreneurs who create the next generation of "CORPORATE CONSUMERS OF LABOR" - thus fulfilling the municipal government's need for ECONOMIC ACTIVITY within its ranks to generate A TAX BASE that can feed its own operations.
I REFUSE to accept a fake supposition which allows a "Permanent Outward Struggle" to go unchallenged.

CNu said...

Why - do you think that the "American Left" believes that they "OWN" the issue of "Income Inequality"?

lol, there are elements of the anarcho-libertarian right far more radical about debt repudiation and bankster retaliation than I am, and the last thing in the world you'd call this element is leftist or socialist.

The very same seats of POWER that OPPRESSED "The Least Of These" with
fire hoses, police dogs and strike breaking armed extensions of the
"State" are NOW CONTROLLED by the people who "The Least Of These" PUT
INTO POWER.


Not even you could be that naive Bro.Feed..., nary a single one of the public-face, "elected" parliamentary sissies controls a dayyum thing.

Why then, sir, should we all agree to SHIFT OUR FOCUS OUTWARD - toward
the NATIONAL GOVERNMENT as a source of "Progressive - Redistributionist
Policies" and thus "Social Justice?"


Wha'choo talkin bout Willis? I asked a very simple kwestin Brah; Do.you.believe.that.the.Hon.Bro.Preznit.is.devious.enough.and.well.intended.enough.to.try.and.pull.a.fast.one.on.the.whole.scripted.system?

Why should we assume that the present slate of AMERICAN CORPORATIONS are
the exclusive "Job Creators" - YET few of these same aggrieved people
can see that just as MICROSOFT was formed out of scratch and ultimately
took market share from IBM, WordPerfect, Novell and
HP....................there exists MORE market forces that WERE NEVER
CREATED because those who think as "LABOR" could not envision the "use
case" by which they TRAIN UP their human resources through the academy
to become entrepreneurs who create the next generation of "CORPORATE
CONSUMERS OF LABOR" - thus fulfilling the municipal government's need
for ECONOMIC ACTIVITY within its ranks to generate A TAX BASE that can
feed its own operations.


OK, see..., there's just an unbelievable amount of living-memory struggle going on in your understanding of how the trey gates managed to foist the microshizzle into the forefront of the business and consumer technology domain. Beginning with that "formed out of scratch" delusion..., but anyway.

I REFUSE to accept a fake supposition which allows a "Permanent Outward Struggle" to go unchallenged.

Klytus I'm bored, but even so, I don't dare try and unpack whatever it is you intended to say in this closing shot. http://youtu.be/SufvakN67WA

Vic78 said...

I believe he just might be devious enough. He got elected president while he was attending Reverend Eldridge Cleaver's church. So he has a little game.

I'll have to say his JOBS Act was probably the best evidence. The problem is that people have to have initiative. There were some good things in the stimulus bill as well. The birth control requirement in the ACA has to help some of these non condom wearing brothers out there.

makheru bradley said...

There is nothing mystical about a system of power, wealth, and privilege which has negatively impacted the lives of people of color since 1492. It can be neutralized, but I agree with you that if Afrikan Americans do not orient ourselves to rebuild our families, we’re toast. No family = no power. This cycle of self-destructive behavior can to be broken, but our young people have to recognize the necessity for that change.

“How do you account for these struggling immigrant serfs…” They come here with significant elements (language, values, etc) of their culture intact. How will they fare after 2 or 3 generations in the belly of this beast?

makheru bradley said...

Malcolm X. London: more of this type of diversity is needed.

http://bit.ly/1kO9B6I

http://bit.ly/1lNhn0v

Ed Dunn said...

I'm trying to grasp what is the issue for Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe? Creative destruction, including of oneself is the ultimate form of capitalism.

CNu said...

I'm with you on the creative destruction, especially of oneself (it's the only objectively valid path to psychophysiological growth). I'm with you on the rise of Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Where our consensus flies off the rails Ed, is with the notion of creative destruction applying to these vast stores of surplus profit that have accumulated into a very small number of hands. The global "market" looks an awful lot like a Monopoly endgame, you know, where on each side of the board, there's nothing but houses and hotels stacked. If that's not broken up, and those few hands holding those vast stores of surplus profit are ready to lie, cheat, and murder to prevent them being broken up, then we are at a species dead end.

It is imperative that creative destruction be applied at that level, and those folks who will resist it will have us to believe that that break up is anti-capitalistic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_%28biblical%29

makheru bradley said...

Hip Hop is now being used, as jazz was once used--to assist the maintenance and expansion of United States imperialism. As Dr. Amos Wilson would say this is power operating at the level of influence, competent and legitimate authority, and manipulation.

[Over the last decade, the question of how to deal with so-called “jihadi rap” has bedeviled American policymakers and terrorism experts. And the answer appears to be broadcasting “good Muslim hip-hop.” The State Department has sponsored hip-hop academies and workshops in Lebanon and Syria, and is gearing up for a new round of hip-hop diplomacy—this time in partnership with the University of North Carolina. Just how did rap come to be seen by European and American governments as both a radicalizing genre and a tool of public diplomacy and de-radicalization?

The State Department’s program is modeled on the jazz diplomacy that the U.S. government conducted during the Cold War by sending integrated bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to counter Soviet propaganda and instead promote “the American way of life.” A 2008 Brookings report titled “Mightier Than the Sword: Arts and Culture in the U.S.-Muslim World Relationship” and authored by Cynthia Schneider, one of the hip-hop initiative’s architects, notes that hip-hop began as “outsiders’ protest” against the U.S. system and now resonates among marginalized Muslim youth worldwide. From the Parisian banlieues to Palestinian cities, “hip-hop music reflects the struggle against authority”—a message that transcends language barriers. Moreover, note the authors, hip-hop’s pioneers were inner-city Muslims who “carry on an African American Muslim tradition of protest against authority, most powerfully represented by Malcolm X.” The study concludes by calling for “greater exploitation of this natural connector to the Muslim world.” For these reasons, hip-hop has become the music of choice in U.S. foreign policy for “perception management” and “strategic communication” with young Muslims.

What’s clear is that the government is pressing ahead with its campaign despite the criticism. In partnership with the University of North Carolina, the State Department recently issued a call for “hip-hop artist-educators” for its Next Level program, which will use music and dance to “foster understanding and conflict resolution.” All those with “Beat Making, DJing, b-boying/b-girling … or MCing” experience are encouraged to apply.]

http://bit.ly/1ja5tk2

http://onforb.es/1dhBhRK

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/16/289825550/rebel-music-when-hip-hop-met-islam

CNu said...

Fascinating Bro.Makheru, thank you very much for this.

To this day, the remnants of the jazz diplomacy program continue to bear fruit, as it's very evident from the demography of 18th and Vine patrons and visitors that folks outside the U.S. place a much higher cultural and aesthetic value on jazz than do the descendants of its original authors. I think it has as much to do with the discontinuation of instrumental music as a standard part of cultural enrichment in public schools. Hell, I was playing saxophone in a band by 4th grade and bassoon in a university symphony orchestra by the 8th grade. My wife asked me the other day why I like listening to http://www.radiogeorge.com/neonbeat/ - and I thought carefully about my answer and that answer was my deep fondness for artful arrangements of the type which characterized popular music for generations in the U.S. until hell started growing wild in the consensus handbasket.

Anyway, so, having peeped the three articles you linked, I'm wondering here what you think about this program? Has the template been set in the U.S. for establishing a broad canon of rhymes, beats, samples, and poses - getting folks hooked on the canon (which has happened organically on its own) and then at some point massively injecting the pornographic and conspicuous consumerist garbage required to effectively export atomized individualism and American-style neoliberalism?

umbrarchist said...

Is redesigning cars that do not need to be redesigned creative?

Nividia has announced the K1 processor to supersede the Tegra 4.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/tegra-k1-processor.html

So far I haven't found some place with a Tegra 4 on display and it should be three times as powerful as my Nexus 7-12. They have gone beyond the diminishing returns point for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQoNAAdt6U4

CNu said...

Your Nexus doesn't have an active stylus does it? If not, then there's an entire rich UI modality you're not using and on that basis alone, I'd have to reject your assessment as unqualified. I gave my daughter a Thinkpad 2 running Windows 8.1 with a bluetooth keyboard as an accessory last fall and she basically shelved her laptop. My first encounter with the active stylus (wacom) was a Galaxy note. The Samsung salesman demonstrated writing out equations, lassoing these and converting them into machine readable form.


Knowing the value of writing out lecture notes, and then being able to convert these to machine readable and embed them in digital texts, as well as a number of other features and functions that tablet provides, it's very easy to see why this Tegra might have strong appeal.

umbrarchist said...

" I'd have to reject your assessment as unqualified."

What do you mean? I just said I hadn't found one YET! But they have announced the K1. The Nexus is also unacceptable because it does not have a microSD slot.

CNu said...

Your criticism of the announced new processor They have gone beyond the diminishing returns point for me. did not address the core functionality which the Note tablet brings to bear, namely the active stylus. In addition to that, one of the complaints about the Tegra 4 in the video, was the comparatively low quality of colors and pixelation.

I'm betting that an nvidia processor upgrade goes directly to that issue, as well as the fact that screen resolution will fundamentally alter the power and capability of the stylus as an I/O device. Given the fact that you don't touch on the primary differentiator of Note tablets, at all - to me - the characterization of your assessment as "unqualified" seems very fair.

Dale Asberry said...

I have the Note 10.1 2014 edition and feel lost without my stylus. My tablet is no longer just an information gathering tool, but also has become my information digestion tool. I'm still looking for a software tool to help me manage my KB.

umbrarchist said...

"Tegra 4 in the video, was the comparatively low quality of colors and pixelation."

That is not a problem with the Tegra 4 processor. That is a choice in screen resolution and a higher resolution screen would increase the price. Getting down to $200 involves compromises.

I was talking about the processor only.

CNu said...

This is what's up next for me http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/03/lenovo-yoga-2-pro-review-you-say-you-want-resolution/

Vic78 said...

Here's why we can't have nice things: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-energy-exports-20140323,0,5478547.story#axzz2wlraq7Ge
http://www.cahsrblog.com/2012/01/will-the-la-times-ever-report-honestly-on-hsr/

makheru bradley said...

“getting folks hooked on the canon (which has happened organically on its own) and then at some point massively injecting the pornographic and conspicuous consumerist garbage required to effectively export atomized individualism and American-style neoliberalism?”

I’ve never read a more brilliant analysis than that. A product which promotes self-destructive behavior amongst the people you hate/fear the most at home, and is used to advance your imperialist agenda abroad. It’s no accident why they’ve been the dominant global power for over 500 years. They leave no stone unturned.

They are developing this hip-hop program at UNC, and they have this at USC::

[USC has just inaugurated a Master's program in cultural diplomacy, emphasizing person-to-person outreach by artists and entertainers. USC Professor Nicholas Cull explains that in the post-Sept. 11 era, cultural diplomacy is more important than ever. "America woke up to the need to communicate effectively with the rest of the world," he says. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (D-NY), who represented New York City's Harlem, was the catalyst behind the 1956 Gillespie tour. His son, Adam Clayton Powell III, is now a professor at USC. He says the power of music — especially jazz, a music genre that originated in America — can communicate what words cannot. "Really interesting music attracts people, and then they hang around for a discussion of the politics," Powell says. "They may hate our policies, but they love our music."]

No stone unturned.

http://ind.pn/1rkUw0o

Vic78 said...

Here's an anti-cathedral flick on Netflix streaming: http://youtu.be/yeTA1qVXWE4

CNu said...

Sahar Biniaz is sure easy enough to look at, but why do you characterize this film as anti-Cathedral?

Speaking of good Netflix jawnts, have you watched The Intouchables? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1675434/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Vic78 said...

The Intouchables was pretty good. It was well put together.

I call it anti-Cathedral due to Biniaz's character development. She starts out questioning where she is in life and doesn't stop questioning. She ends up meeting someone that tries to get her to fall for the bullshit. It's beautiful how she responds to that in the end. The trailer doesn't do it justice. A casual viewer will probably stop what he's doing and watch the movie due to Sahar's screen presence and pulchtridude. She's special. I didn't know she was Miss Canada until after I saw the movie.

makheru bradley said...

Great to know that rhyming and posing is responsible for driving America towards being a colorblind society! Amazingly it does this while Big Pimpin' the blind colored to self-destruct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuAyo7Zf7Uc

http://www.translationllc.com/pdf/20121001-2.pdf

[Over the last three decades, hip-hop culture and its seminal figures have gone from being a urban counterculture movement to permeating virtually every aspect of American life: The music we listen to, the fashion we wear, the food we eat, the cars we drive, etc. Hip-hop has done more to erase perceptions about racial distinctions for the generations that grew up exposed to it than any other force since the Civil Rights Movement. There's now a whole generation of Americans who grew up immersed in this culture who are, for all intents and purposes, colorblind. This is the true story of that evolution: The Tanning of America.

While many of these events will be familiar to hip-hop fans, they have never been presented or coalesced in this fashion. This is an epic pop culture journey from the birthplace of hip hop, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.]

http://www.vh1.com/shows/the_tanning_of_america/series.jhtml

Vic78 said...

I would've went into more detail if I were sure I wasn't the only one that saw the movie.

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