CHARBONNEAU – Wounded, America lashes out at its friends

POOR SUPERPOWER to the South: entangled in  a war they can’t win,  a record debt of $40 trillion, unloved by the world.

It wasn’t always that way.

American soldiers were showered with flowers and kisses as they triumphantly paraded through the streets of a liberated France at the end of World War II.

A jubilant America rebuilt countries, some their former enemies, through programs such as the Marshall Plan.

The United States was central to lowering trade barriers through the WTO and building alliances through NATO.

America was on top of the world. Wages were high, American companies dominated international business, American universities and technology led the world, and the dollar sat at the centre of the financial system.

They dominated the global entertainment industry through massive studio power, global distribution networks, and successful adaptation to new home-video technology.

Everyone wanted to be American.

The U.S. eagerly entered into an integrated continental economy through NAFTA in 1994 when the United States, Canada and Mexico became partners.

Exploding with exuberance and belief in their God-given American exceptionalism, they put globalization on speed.

Americans enthusiastically helped countries develop export industries, establish supply chains,  and gave them access to their market.

Everybody was on board. The goal of globalization was shared by U.S. presidents, economists, business leaders and both Democrat and Republican politicians.

From the 1990s to the 2010s, America believed that reducing barriers to international trade and investment would make both America and the world more prosperous — and ultimately more stable and peaceful.

Cracks in globalization started a decade ago with the first election of President Trump.

Through globalization, American workers lost jobs. The argument for globalization was that Americans would benefit from cheaper goods manufactured abroad. Workers could now buy a TV for half the price of one made in America.

However, cheaper goods didn’t compensate for the loss of a $60,000 factory job.

American policy against globalization that began in the first Trump administration continued into the Biden government with a slight twist.

Biden’s Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen made it clear that trade relations with Canada were not part of globalization. Canada’s integration into the American economy was part of what Yellen called “friendshoring.”

Canada enthusiastically embraced Biden’s version. In 2022, Chrystia Freeland described the emerging post-Cold-War order as one of friendshoring in which democracies would strengthen supply chains with one another.

Globalization didn’t work out as planned for America. Life expectancy is 62nd in the world (Canada is 25th); the U.S. is categorized as a “flawed democracy” by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) with a ranking of 34 (Canada 13).

In a pique of petulance, the Trump administration claims that globalization has worked too well in favour of others.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says: “We assumed that closer integration would result in a greater convergence of interests. That supply chains would function in every crisis. Low prices would compensate for lost capacity. And, above all, that other countries would treat our firms as fairly as we had treated theirs. Those assumptions failed to materialize.”

Aw, poor America. They were so nice and everyone took advantage of them.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://closetproductions.ca/EyeView/eyeviewcover.htm