Day by day, more of the world's
pundits, politicos and pop stars line up against the prospect of a
Donald Trump presidency. The idea that a person like Trump could end
up being leader of both the world's largest economy and the world's
largest military power is frightening, to say the least.
But ideas always have a basis in
something. For Trump, that something is a widespread suspicion among
the beleaguered working class that they've been lied to. Not just the
lies that we cynically think politicians and business elites tell us
all the time, but lied to regarding the very promise of co-operative
well-being that holds society together.
The army of the working class has
looked at the past 30 years and decided the future ain't what was
sold to us — and it's time for a reckoning.
By no means does Donald Trump have any
workable answers for the problems of huge income inequality and
long-term wage stagnation that act like sticky mud on our economy.
But when large numbers of people seize on the thought that the
purveyors of global free trade and the so-called New Economy have
lied to them, somebody will eventually have to pay.
That's what could make the thought of a
Donald Trump presidency thinkable.
Consider: has free trade really worked
for you? Have all the myriad agreements Canada has signed to create
the free movement of goods and services around the world made your
future or your children's future any more secure?
That's a hypothetical question; we
can't test outcomes against what might have happened if NAFTA had
never evolved, for instance. But I'm willing to suggest that a whole
lot of people in the U.S. (or Canada) aren't feeling the same love
that the top 10 per cent of income-earners are feeling for free
trade.
So when Trump says he'll tear up NAFTA
and sandbag the Trans Pacific Partnership immediately upon taking the
oath of office next January (that is, right after banning Muslim
immigration, crushing ISIS and getting that wall with Mexico
started), who are we to say that's such a bad idea?
Nobel laureate Joseph
Stiglitz is a heavy hitter in the field of analyzing global trade.
And he's no fan of how the consequences of free trade have played
out.
Free trade agreements are not the only
reason the top strata of income-earners have gotten so fabulously
rich, while the rest of us have been stuck or sliding backwards in
real income. But Stiglitz says they are a major contributor to the
problem.
He wrote in the Globe and Mail this
week that he warned about this 15 years ago. And by the way, he has
another book out suggesting that free trade needs to include a social
contract for the 90 per cent of us in developed countries — or
we'll get more of people like Donald Trump.
The agreements that allowed big
corporations to move jobs and livelihoods out of developed countries
into countries with the lowest wages have indeed contributed to the
“race to the bottom” — at the expense of the masses of people
who now think Donald Trump could turn things around.
Trump has not offered even one concrete
plan that could possibly “make America great again.” But the
promise to do so has been enough to gain him the Republican Party's
nomination for presidency.
From all evidence, it's safe to say
that Trump doesn't have even one concrete plan to restore lost
manufacturing jobs to his nation. Nor has he any details that could
restore hope to the masses of people who are working ever longer
hours for less reward, while the moneyed class gets ever richer.
Here's irony for you: Trump may
actually be right that global free trade has not worked in favour of
that huge demographic of ordinary Americans (suggestion: it might not
be working for Canada, either — not if you ask the struggling
middle class).
But the fact that his proposed
solutions are either hare-brained, unconstitutional or non-existent
does not deter the belief among his followers that they've been lied
to by the current political and business elite.
And his army of voters seems willing to
swallow even bigger lies, just to get their time of reckoning.
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