The Traveling Economist: Using Economics to Think About What Makes Us All So Different and the Same by Todd A. Knoop

Author:Todd A. Knoop
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO

The “old” town of Suzhou, China.

For me, food is of utmost importance, and I tend to think of the costs and benefits of globalization primarily through food. When I am traveling, I am faced with three choices for restaurants. I can go to the generic chain restaurant that is filled with other tourists and some locals. I can go to a specialty restaurant that caters to high-end “foodies” and rich locals. Or I can go to the local restaurant filled with middle- and lower-class locals. As someone who enjoys experiencing cultural diversity and who is cheap, I am most likely to go to the third type, and many might argue that this is the type of restaurant that is hurt by the existence of the first two. But the fact of the matter is that globalization helps all three types of restaurants. When people patronize the generic and specialty restaurants, they are generating jobs and incomes for locals, helping them to afford to go out to eat. This creates more customers for local restaurants and helps me as a traveler in the process. As a result, while many travelers complain about the fact that we see KFCs and Pizza Huts everywhere we go, in reality, overall restaurant diversity benefits from the existence of the chain restaurants that many of us deplore.

The most persuasive argument to be made for why globalization promotes cultural diversity is the fact that higher incomes are the best way to promote the arts and culture. One of the most effective ways to generate higher incomes, as we have talked about throughout this book, is through encouraging international trade. Artists and cultural trendsetters need to be financially supported to be able to work. Sometimes this occurs directly through commissions, such as from the Medici family in Florence. But most often this occurs indirectly through markets. As overall standards of living rise and people become more educated, they appreciate more cultural activities and can afford to spend money to do so. In the words of Walt Whitman: “To have great poets, there must be great audiences, too.”54 Globalization and economic development allows more artists to make a living by creating more market demand for their artwork and through higher levels of support from well-funded governments, educational institutions, and museums.

One of the most famous fights against globalization was Gandhi’s Swadeshi movement aimed at burning foreign cloth in order to protect the domestic jobs of hand weavers and the cultural heritage of India. But the history of the textile industry since Gandhi’s time tells a story in which the international trade and mechanization that Gandhi fought against have reduced the overall price of cloth, raised the purchasing power of the poor, and increased overall incomes. With higher incomes, the size of the market for people who can afford to purchase high-end handwoven fabrics in India and across the globe is now much larger than it has been in the past. Today, there are more people working in the handwoven cloth industry in India than during Gandhi’s era.

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