Globalization, Competition and $6.2 Trillion

What is to be done? The February 11th issue of Business Week Magazine has several interesting articles concerning globalization and competition, and how that is impacting Americans.

Over the past 200+ years of the American Experiment, fear of the unknown, angst in all of it's forms, has driven both good and bad decisions regarding our country.

One of the articles in Business Week that caught my eye was the number $6.2 Trillion. This number, by the McKinsey Global Institute, based on their assumptions, is the suggested amount of petrodollars that a group of OPEC members will have available to invest in US based assets over the next 14 years. That is about half of this year's GDP. It is also about 10% of the wealth of Americans today.

This begs the question as to who will really own this $6.2 Trillion of Capital and will they administer it appropriately?

A second article worried about globalization and whether that was contributing to the loss of income and purchasing power among middle-class Americans.

Globalization and competition are interesting paradoxes. They can be both good or bad, depending upon the actions of all of us, and depending upon the actions of our leaders.

My own experience is that competition is good when it help us to become better. It is bad when it takes advantage of someone less able or less informed.

Globalization, or the concept of comparative advantage, is good. We can all be better off when we specialize and then trade with each other. It is bad when fear and angst prevents civility among nations.

I can't help but wonder about the big industries of capital, energy and healthcare. There seems to be so much waste within these industries. How often does capital take advantage of those least able to afford debt? How often does big oil enjoy excess profits in the name of finding new reserves? How often is healthcare denied to those that have pre-existing conditions?

Paradoxically, how do we encourage competition and globalization to benefit all mankind?

I think that the answer lies within the verses of chapter 25, in the Book of Matthew of the New Testament. If we prepare; if we go to work; and if we will serve each other, we will be blessed; we will find peace and joy; and we will maximize our prosperity.

To me that means that Globalization is still an important solution to world prosperity.