[TheForge] Blacksmiths in the news --> OT

[Andrew Vida]

Marc Godbout wrote:
> Just remember, "A rising tide floats all boats". Well, all except for
> those on the other side of the ocean. Those hit the mud.

	In terms of a given national interest, abdication of responsibility for 
one's own welfare is tantamount to playing Russian Roulette with all 
chambers loaded.  When the shit hits the fan, does anyone think that the 
rest of the world will give a toot about those in trouble?  Don't hold 
your breath waiting. The economic reasons for following certain trends 
appear to resolutely ignore failure paths in local economies.  This has 
been the MO of Worldbank/IMF's decades-long campaign of "economic 
reforms" for the various backwater and banana republics in places such 
as the Caribbean.  People who had lived well enough for centuries now 
live in crushing poverty to rival any place on the planet anyone might 
care to name.

	Globalization has become reality, so one has to deal with it, but 
anyone attempting to sell it as the great boon to the world ( in the 
ways in which is it currently practiced) is either an imbecile, 
willfully shutting the eyes watertight, or are trying to sell a bill of 
goods.  Globalization could be a great thing, were it not for labor 
arbitrage, which turns a good thing into a shellacking for those nations 
that cannot possibly compete on that basis.  The economists are selling 
ice to the Eskimos.