O Intermitente
(So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, good-bye)

segunda-feira, novembro 29, 2004

Globalisation and Its Critics, Mutual Gain vs. Cloud Cuckoo Land

Artigo de Anthony de Jasay na Library of Economics and Liberty.

It is an old truth that lack of understanding and sheer stupidity are causing more harm and suffering in the world than wickedness and self-seeking. This is particularly the case when politics holds a broad sway over individual lives, when a large proportion of the national income is spent by government, and when a few major collective decisions can make the difference between prosperity and penury; for in such situations the obtuse and the stupid have immense leverage to spoil things while intending to improve them. To aggravate matters, they also possess a mode of discourse that has a more potent and immediate impact on popular opinion than the cooler voice of lucid good sense.

Much of the passionate criticism of "globalisation"?perhaps even the very use of this woolly term?can be best understood by bearing these factors in mind. So can the truculent nature of many of the hodge-podge of anti-global policy measures adopted to combat it. Both the criticism and the policy amount to a protest against the intrusion of reality into a fairyland where everyone had the "right" not to get hurt

posted by Miguel Noronha 3:00 da tarde