Globalism and free trade - This is where an auto parts manufacturer can shut down his plant in Michigan, move it out of the country, make parts cheaper and pays no tariff as they come back in. He keeps the extra profit. His former factory workers take lower paying jobs in retail. Our rich get richer and our poor get poorer. This is one of the main causes of income inequality within the U.S. Globalism was designed to mainly benefit the 1%.

Many say globalism and free trade create efficient economies. Every product will seek its lowest wage country. The low wage countries see their wages rise and the high wage countries see theirs fall. This leveling is a form of income redistribution. For the high-wage first-world countries, it is a race to the bottom on wages. The low-wage, low GDP per capita countries need to develop their own economies, create their own wealth, and create their own consumer base. Instead, with globalism and free trade, they suck the economic life out of the economies who created the most value until all have equal wages and then the former consumer economies no longer can afford to consume. At this point everything will stall out. It will lead to economic entropy.

Globalism means open borders. No real restrictions on who enters the country and stays. Immigration law is not enforced. Proponents say it’s okay for immigrants to cross the U.S. border in caravans of thousands. It’s okay because they are poor. The other 100 million poor in South and Central America are encouraged by this. The other one billion poor across the rest of the globe would like to come too. Do you have a spare bedroom?

Globalism increases the fragility of the U.S. economy. As we shed entire industries, we become more dependent on other countries and on strategically critical products having to cross the oceans to reach us. As this dependency increases, it gives other countries more leverage over us. It makes it easier for an opponent to shut down our economy by closing the sea lanes. This means we must spend more to defend the sea lanes. Having to vigorously defend the sea lanes increases the probability of a world war. Globalism leads to a more networked world economy. Networked systems are by nature more fragile (Read Antifragile by Nassim Taleb). We need a more robust economic system. At some point in the future, our lives and our well-being may depend on it.