Peter Thiel: There Are No Good Bets Against Globalization
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Re: Peter Thiel: There Are No Good Bets Against Globalization
#2Resilient communities are a good hedge against globalization.
Best case, resilient communities can mitigate the harmful effects of globalization, improve local quality of life and dampen the magnifying network effects (whether financial, political, or natural). They can provide a "monkeysphere" that members can care about and be held accountable to, an excellent alternative to all the divisive, useless rhetoric and posturing in the MSM.
Worst case, they're the ones still eating and recovering ground after the the zombies/terrorists/enemy paratroopers/global pandemic/massive earthquakes strike.
Re: Peter Thiel: There Are No Good Bets Against Globalization
#3The entertainment business (MPAA, RIAA, etc) are a very powerful antiglobalization force? They are in fact betting against real globalization. Just consider regional coding for DVDs or the fact that there is not just one Apple iTunes Store but that every nation needs to have its own?
With other words: What does "globalization" really mean?
Re: Peter Thiel: There Are No Good Bets Against Globalization
#4Wonderful! So this means I and other Americans will soon legally be able to purchase prescription drugs from other countries where drug companies sell them for much less money? Oh, I forgot; "globalization," as meant by multinational corporations and policy makers, doesn't work that way.
Globalization is not a two-way street, and while it would certainly be foolish to bet against it when it means American jobs being shipped to other countries where labor is cheaper and the cost of living is lower, betting against consumers being able to import goods from those same countries where multinationals sell their products for cheaper seems, for the time being anyway, to be a pretty safe bet.
Re: Peter Thiel: There Are No Good Bets Against Globalization
#5The entertainment business (MPAA, RIAA, etc) are a very powerful antiglobalization force? They are in fact betting against real globalization. Just consider regional coding for DVDs or the fact that there is not just one Apple iTunes Store but that every nation needs to have its own? With other words: What does "globalization" really mean?
With other words: What does "globalization" really mean?
Empirically, it appears to mean a global market for land, labor, and capital with national and regional markets for consumer goods.
Re: Peter Thiel: There Are No Good Bets Against Globalization
#6Wonderful! So this means I and other Americans will soon legally be able to purchase prescription drugs from other countries where drug companies sell them for much less money? Oh, I forgot; "globalization," as meant by multinational corporations and policy makers, doesn't work that way. Globalization is not a two-way street, and while it would certainly be foolish to bet against it when it means American jobs being…
The only problem with globalization is the lack of truly free trade. If countries didn't have to subsidize nonproductive sectors of the economy then the costs of living would equalize much quicker - see farm subsidies, tariffs, and the ban on imports of certain goods.
Re: Peter Thiel: There Are No Good Bets Against Globalization
#7The entertainment business (MPAA, RIAA, etc) are a very powerful antiglobalization force? They are in fact betting against real globalization. Just consider regional coding for DVDs or the fact that there is not just one Apple iTunes Store but that every nation needs to have its own? With other words: What does "globalization" really mean?
It means that people will fight it kicking and screaming, trying to get politicians to enforce their short sidedness. Eventually they will lose out, perhaps making a fortune in the short run. They will be basically robbing those who have no choice but to purchase their goods due to various lawyerly machinations.
Re: Peter Thiel: There Are No Good Bets Against Globalization
#8I only read the first third of this - but did anyone else find it wandering without clear points or thought process? It was fairly confusing, not because of the content, but how it was written. Was surprised to see this come from Peter Thiel, but I haven't read much of his stuff so who knows.
Re: Peter Thiel: There Are No Good Bets Against Globalization
#9The entertainment business (MPAA, RIAA, etc) are a very powerful antiglobalization force? They are in fact betting against real globalization. Just consider regional coding for DVDs or the fact that there is not just one Apple iTunes Store but that every nation needs to have its own? With other words: What does "globalization" really mean?
With other words: What does "globalization" really mean? Empirically, it appears to mean a global market for land, labor, and capital with national and regional markets for consumer goods.
Thank you, I'm going to plagiarize that ;->
Re: Peter Thiel: There Are No Good Bets Against Globalization
#10Interesting that this was published in January 2008, and likely written before that. Rightly or wrongly, economic globalization's image didn't end that year untarnished.
The world's a really complex system, even limited to just the human-systems part of it, and the In particular, Thiel wrestles with the fairly old internal contradictions of capitalism that many other thinkers have, some much more in depth. To use one more Biblical reference, the Rapture for globalization is a totally "flat" world of complete freedom for labor and capital (and technology, but presumably not land). Global capitalism runs, shuffles, or stumbles towards that end, with much of its participants heedless of the journey, never mind its destination.
For example, since capitalism's purpose is to accumulate capital for its own sake, it cannot help but be global (early on, slave trade/colonialism), and it cannot help but work against itself in the long run (We'll up profit margins by outsourcing! But wait, then those outsourcers will get richer, and compete to squeeze our own profit margins. Yah, but then they'll outsource too! But wait, the planet is finite...). While it is a very resilient economic system, what might follow it as its contradictions come fully into play is far from clear.
As an aside, here's someone else who's view on the current globalization situation is, I've found, comprehensive and coherent: