This Charlie Rose interview of Sir James Goldsmith from 1994 hits on a number of very important concepts that I think mostly go unrecognized even though much of what he predicts has come to pass.  I’ll include some of the quotes that stood out to me but I highly recommend watching this (just ignore the shrill bureaucrat that comes on the show for a bit).

He touches on what we worship and how that is destroying society.  He touches on many of the consequences of globalization including mass migration from rural areas to urban slums, loss of high quality jobs across the globe and a disconnect between the best interests of society vs. what is in the best interest of multi-national corporations.  He identifies who wins and who loses.  Multi-national corporations win.  The rich oligarchs in third world countries win as they receive the investment money coming into their countries.  The average worker in developed countries lose jobs.  The poor in third world countries are destabilized, forced to urban slums and put to work at starvation wages.  Goldsmith suggests that we should change our focus of worship and build economies that serve people.

The fact that the guy made billions in his lifetime establishes some credibility with me.  After listening to this interview, I can see why he was so successful.  He’s a sharp guy.

Quotes from his book, “The Trap”

“We have convinced ourselves that there exists only one valid economic and social model: our own. By attempting to impose it universally, we have exported to almost every corner of the world our diseases: crime, drugs, alcoholism, family breakdown, civil disorder in urban slums, accelerated abuse of the environment and all the other problems that we experience daily.”

“The economy is a tool to serve us. It is not a demi-god to be served by society.”

“Those of us who believe in free enterprise must understand that although in many nations and in many ways our beliefs remain eminently valid, on their own they are not sufficient. They must be integrated into the overriding imperatives of the biosphere as well as of human societies. Market forces must be harnessed to the needs of stable communities. Otherwise, like Marxists, we will be rejected as mechanistic relics of the past.”

And some paraphrases from this interview:

“What’s the good in growing an economy by 80% while at the same time increasing unemployment, effectively removing people from participating in the market, from  from 425,000 to 5.1 million.”

“The economy is there for the purpose of serving the fundamental needs of society by providing for prosperity and stabilizing society.  If we pursue an economic doctrine that produces unemployment, lowers wages and destabilizes society, we are in trouble.”

“What is wrong?  Instead of the economy serving us, we are there adoring and serving economic indexes.”

“Who benefits?  Major corporations.  There is a divorce between the interests between these corporations and society.  They are no longer linked to any country.  They farm out their capital to whatever area can provide the lowest costs of labor.  This is not just textiles, shoes…its skilled labor, high tech and service industries.  Who else benefits?  The oligarchs in third world countries.  Who loses?  The poor in the rich countries will be subsidizing the rich in the poor countries.”

“The idea of GAT is that the efficiency of agriculture should be maximized.  What does that mean?  What is cost?  What happens when you reduce the number of people on the land?  The people move to the urban centers.  You are breaking up families and throwing them into the slums.  There are not enough jobs in these cities.  The towns can’t support 2.1 billion new people.  This is the greatest disaster we will ever see via mass migration (refugees).  We should be taking into account all the costs associated with food: nutrition, the right balance of food, the environment and proper employment.”

“All of our decision making is focused on increased GNP and improving an economic index.  The result is that we are destroying the stability of our societies because we are worshiping the wrong god.”

“The ruling machinery of government and business are pushing this through without debate.”

“We have allowed the instruments that are meant to serve us and turned them into our masters.”

“I think our financial system is extremely fragile.  There is an incredible amount of danger in derivatives.  Our financial system is at risk to do real harm to the real economy.  You cannot enrich a country by empoverishing its people.”

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