In order to understand why global leaders select a situation of tragedy, instead of an atmosphere of stability, we must try to specify the circumstances that give rise to contemporary protectionism, the protectionism of today. Specifically, it is imperative that we know what are the reasons that force governments to reject economic rationality, or what is the same, to take an irrational stance. This is a clear signal of these times of post-truth: the reason does not matter, the truth does not matter, it matters what is appropriate.
The current protectionism originates in the United States and materializes in 2017 with the election of Donald Trump as president of that nation. However, Trump is not the forerunner of protectionism in North America as this policy was applied previously in that nation, as well as in other industrial economies, but, it was replaced by free market policies and free capital flows to adapt to the developing world economic process known as globalization.
To the surprise of scholars, protectionism is reborn to try to alleviate serious social problems that have been appearing in American society since, more or less, the decade of the 70s. Obviously, American opinion matrices have been emphasizing since those years regarding a progressive deterioration in the living conditions of the average American. On the other hand, the American intellectuals affirm that, since those years, a process of accelerated decline of real wages has been occurring in the United States, which is reflected in a great social dissatisfaction and discontent that transcends the political sphere.
From my point of view, these studies, as well as the statistics that aim to support them, lack sufficient scientific rigor to demonstrate categorically that this process of impairment is taking place. In fact, for example, we observe how per capita food consumption statistics increase over time, as well as the consumption of other non-luxury goods; These are computations that would suffice to discredit any hypothesis similar to the one already mentioned. However, it can not be concealed that there are indications, especially of a social nature, that indicate that the living conditions of the average American citizen are getting worse. These social problems are not limited exclusively to the members of the black, Latin or Asian race or limited to some geographical areas of the territory of that country, but it has already begun to reach numerous members of the white race and is already present in cities and states that traditionally have excellent social indicators.
My personal opinion is that this deterioration, indeed, if it is happening, but is not easily demonstrable due to complexities inherent in the data that reflects the social and labor environment of American society.
The American intellectuals who admit the worsening of the living conditions of the average American attribute the cause of this evil to two circumstances:
- The increase of the inequality in the distribution of the product.
- The effect that other nations cause in the productive structure of the USA.
Intellectuals with political positions on the left attribute the aforementioned deterioration to the fact that "the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer" and, therefore, recommend the application of measures that redistribute the product and increase equality.
On the other hand, intellectuals with right-wing political positions point as a cause of this deterioration to:
- The action of emigrants who are willing to work for wages below the minimum wage.
- The importation of foreign products that discourages the action of the North American industry and harms the atmosphere of employment of the Americans.
- The low wages paid to workers in the economies where the products imported by the US are manufactured, which encourages US companies to move to those geographies and to harm the welfare of the American worker.
The truth is that none of these arguments can convincingly justify the social problems of the United States.
Obviously, inequality is a stimulus for productive power, societies that tend to be egalitarian lack productive power, therefore, egalitarian social measures tend not to solve social problems but to aggravate them.
On the other hand, migrants do not generate large distortions in labor markets, on the contrary, they make it more dynamic and only in exceptional cases compete with the native worker. In addition, the abundance of imported products has kept inflation at bay in the US, thanks to the overvaluation of the dollar. Also, although many North American companies have gone abroad, these have been replaced by the emergence of companies in the digital world; that is to say, the North American productive talent has not been affected because it was absorbed by these new companies.
It is evident that in the last five decades the American economy has undergone radical transformations as a consequence of the movements of the international economy, but, I insist, this is not the factor that creates social problems, but, on the contrary, the dynamism that it imprinted. the international economy to the USA allowed social problems to be attenuated in one way or another.
Specifically, the North American economy has been transformed into a society "selling financial titles", given the colossal flows of money from around the globe that enter this nation to acquire these securities. This phenomenon has been misinterpreted by the scholars of today as they give an accounting view to it and qualify it as "external debt". In fact, no US economic agent is on his knees knocking on the doors of foreign investors to buy their securities, no, they are foreign investors who desperately want to have in their portfolios an increasing amount of American financial assets.
The USA has also become a "seller of technology", given the characteristics of the movements of North American companies towards those nations that provide low wages and the characteristics of the operations carried out by companies that operate in the digital world. This is a phenomenon a little difficult to notice because said "product" is not offered "packaged" in the view of all, but it assumes forms that could be unconventional; for example, behind a hostile takeover bid we could have the will of the board of directors to sell technology. The truth is that, at the moment, the USA is the largest producer of technology in the world, while there is a large group of companies in the rest of the world that need to increase their productivity to survive or to be born. That we can not see the market does not mean that the market does not exist.
These are changes meanings that undoubtedly alter the productive structure of the United States, but do not imply an open deterioration in the living conditions of workers. So what would be causes of this impairment?
My opinion moves towards much more heterodox reasons, such as:
- The improvement in infant mortality rates
- Improvement in workers' health indicators
- Improvement in the indicators of access to education.
- The characteristic of the capitalist production system of valuing less and less the physical effort and more and more the possession of useful skills and abilities.
In summary, according to my criteria:
- The magnitude of productive power in the USA is not enough to satisfy the increasing growth of citizens' welfare.
- Americans, in order to adapt to the new productive structure that prevails in their nation, must maintain a constant program of re-education.
In any case, American society has already made its choice in 2017 and it is categorical: foreigners are to blame.
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