Global trade and a fairer distribution of wealth in the world | Henning Weigand

Often I was wondering, why the extremes from both ends of the political spectrum are so much against globalization: In their opposition to globalization, Donald Trump and the socialist movement are quite close to one another, e.g. fighting against free trade associations such as TTIP.

But what is globalization really: isn’t it a process of specialization across the globe? Everybody is good at something. In a society depending on their talents, people choose different professions: Some are great at arts, others great at technical understanding, others good with numbers and others are great in educating or convincing people. Each of those talents and gifts is valuable across a society and with specialization, people become valuable and less replacable.

On a wider scale, this also has some truth to different societies: Some countries are great at IT, others have a highly efficient production process, again others are really great at agriculture, some know how to make watches, some are great with leather products, others know how to make computer, clothing, cars, shoes, web applications, some happen to be lucky to be born on raw materials, that other give them money for handing over, etc. The free and open market exchange of all that beyond

borders in the end is globalization. And usually where free trade happens, the overall wealth in a society increases.

 

While in the 20th Century only some Western countries were wealthy, the expansion of globalization led to a great spread of wealth across many parts of the world. Yes, it’s still uneven, but it’s a lot better distributed than it was a few decades ago: Many countries – especially in Asia – rose from poverty to a good amount of wealth through global trade and exchange. Recently also a country like Bangladesh could significantly increase the average level of wealth. Yes, there is still plenty to do, but we do not see anymore starvation and the level of poverty that existed not too long ago. In my view, global trade and globalization helps to distribute wealth across the world in a fairer way.