Interlocalism Successor to Capitalism and Globalization
Capitalism in America and China, like in Iraq, relies on railroads as one of the pillars in the development and growth of capitalism ─ and globalization. To put things in perspective on the growth of capitalism, we just have to flash back to 1848, when John Jacob Astor died as America’s richest man. He left a fortune of $20 million, mere chump change when compared to today’s wealthiest individuals. How did this transformation happen within 50 years? Big Business. It is big business that developed the Rockefellers, Carnegies and Fords. It was the new technologies of the railroad, telegraph, and the steam engine that favored the creation of massive businesses that needed ─ and, in turn, gave rise to ─ superstructures of professional managers, engineers, accountants and supervisors.
It began with railroads. In 1830, getting from New York to Chicago took three weeks. By 1857, the trip was three days. In 1850, there was 14,400km of track. By 1900, that figure increased to 320,000km. Railroads required a vast administrative apparatus to ensure the maintenance of locomotives, rolling stock and track ─ not to mention scheduling trains, billing and construction, as historian Dr. Alfred Chandler showed in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book ─ The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. The lesson is an important one because no matter how efficient a factory might be, it would be hugely wasteful if raw materials did not arrive on time or if the output couldn’t be quickly distributed and sold.
The lesson for companies and countries is that old established firms, like political parties and dated ideologies ─ despite ample capital and technical know how ─ often don’t dominate new industries or geopolitics. Google, eBay and Yahoo rule the Internet, not General Motors, Sears or Disney.
Today America and China have to develop a new successor model to capitalism and globalism. Globalism is benefiting only a handful of the richest people and impoverishing the rest of the world. A “New Deal for Interlocalism.” A new interlocal economic and political system that is in tune with the new global economic world thrust upon us by the worldwide internet is necessary to get the global economy back on track.
China is re-emerging as a global economic and military power. A power America should embrace in a strategic alliance. The alternative is a futile and costly exercise of containment and encirclement that is doomed to fail. America is trying to do to China today what Britain and France tried to do to contain the rapid growth of Germany before World War I. Britain and France formed an alliance with Russia to encircle Germany. The U.S. is trying to form a similar alliance with Japan and India to contain China. But China, unlike Germany, has no desire to conquer the world. This is a historical fact. America’s thinking is outdated. It didn’t work for Britain and France and it won’t work for America. The only outcome, like in 1914, is an avoidable war.
It began with railroads. In 1830, getting from New York to Chicago took three weeks. By 1857, the trip was three days. In 1850, there was 14,400km of track. By 1900, that figure increased to 320,000km. Railroads required a vast administrative apparatus to ensure the maintenance of locomotives, rolling stock and track ─ not to mention scheduling trains, billing and construction, as historian Dr. Alfred Chandler showed in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book ─ The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. The lesson is an important one because no matter how efficient a factory might be, it would be hugely wasteful if raw materials did not arrive on time or if the output couldn’t be quickly distributed and sold.
The lesson for companies and countries is that old established firms, like political parties and dated ideologies ─ despite ample capital and technical know how ─ often don’t dominate new industries or geopolitics. Google, eBay and Yahoo rule the Internet, not General Motors, Sears or Disney.
Today America and China have to develop a new successor model to capitalism and globalism. Globalism is benefiting only a handful of the richest people and impoverishing the rest of the world. A “New Deal for Interlocalism.” A new interlocal economic and political system that is in tune with the new global economic world thrust upon us by the worldwide internet is necessary to get the global economy back on track.
China is re-emerging as a global economic and military power. A power America should embrace in a strategic alliance. The alternative is a futile and costly exercise of containment and encirclement that is doomed to fail. America is trying to do to China today what Britain and France tried to do to contain the rapid growth of Germany before World War I. Britain and France formed an alliance with Russia to encircle Germany. The U.S. is trying to form a similar alliance with Japan and India to contain China. But China, unlike Germany, has no desire to conquer the world. This is a historical fact. America’s thinking is outdated. It didn’t work for Britain and France and it won’t work for America. The only outcome, like in 1914, is an avoidable war.
posted by Peter de Krassel's Custom Maid Politics at 10:21 PM
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