Reading the morning news today, I feel like I woke up in some socio-economic-political bizarro world. The assumptions I have held for years about the world order have simply evaporated.
Today at Davos, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, comes out strong on the importance of liberal globalization and free trade. I had to make sure I was not still dreaming. Sure, it's opportunistic. Yes, China is anything but perfect. But, just the fact that communist China is taking the torch here, is simply something I just never imagined.
This is so strange to me. China has always been the meddler in my mind, unable to free it's economy from it's centrally controlled tendencies. Yet here he is talking about how the global economy has a strength that one must work with rather than against.
Critically, he hits on global wealth inequality as the greatest risk to the world. I agree. Meanwhile, in the United States we rally over the... total deregulation of banks? The neutering of the EPA? The final slaughter of labor once and for all? The final dismantling of the hope of universal healthcare? Shutting ourselves in with prohibitive trade policies?
Then to pour salt in the wound, there is Jack Ma, reminding me how the United States spent $14 Trillion on wars instead of fixing our wealth inequality problem. Instead of having the lower and middle class enjoy the unprecedented wealth of the United States economy over the last decade, the upper 1% enjoys a highly favorable tax environment and investment income while the rest just make due with stagnating wages. The fact that Obamacare is on the chopping block shows that the one favorable improvement for helping level the playing field is about to die.
Wealth inequality is the most important problem the world is facing right now and if countries like China are taking thought leadership on this, I wonder what will be the part of the United States in the New World Order.
What are your thoughts?
References:
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2062840/watch-xi-jinping-live-davos
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2063305/watch-alibabas-jack-ma-live-world-economic-forum-davos
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http://photos.jdhancock.com/