PES Manifesto

Åsa Westlund: A strategy to promote healthy globalisation

Publié mardi 6 mai 2008 à 10h56
par asa.westlund dans La nouvelle Europe sociale (vu 394 fois et 1 commentaires)

On the plane to Brussels yesterday, I read the Financial Times, and found an interesting comment by Lawrence Summers. To put it simple he says that workers’ scepticism against free markets is logic, because although the economy in general terms benefit from free trade and globalization, there is no guarantee that the working class will. As countries have taken globalization as an argument to cut down on social security and tax levels, the working class are right in being anti-globalization in Summers´view. Therefore, he calls on the US to take the lead in promoting global co-operation in the international tax arena, and to end the race to the bottom on social standards and try to find an international co-operation to raise the standards all over the world.

I welcome free trade and globalization, but I also recognise that globalization and free trade demands much of each individual. In my generation people have had time-limited contracts for ten years. That puts people under lot of stress. Every person in the labour market nowadays has to be flexible, be able to educate themselves again and again, and to start new jobs again and again. But people can not be left to manage this totally be themselves. No, in the globalized world that we live in today the responsibility of the society is greater than ever. The society must ensure that in times of unemployment you will still have the money to support you and your family and you must constantly be given the opportunity to retrain and re-educate. If the society does no take up on this responsibility, it can not expect people to welcome the globalization.

But the real positive thing is that if the society takes on this responsibility it will not only have happy citizens, but also a competitive industry. An industry that is able to make quick and smooth adjustments to global trends, and a work-force that is highly skilled and full of self esteem, and thereby competitive on the world market. The OECD Employmment outlook for 2007 shows that a generous unemployment insurance makes economies more flexible and helps the productivity to grow. The matching works better as workers got time to search for more qualified jobs and don´t get stressed to search for low paid unqualified jobs.

I think that Summers’ suggestions for the US could be well included in the PES manifesto: Stop the race to the bottom in taxes, make sure that nation states has the ability to tax companies and people in order to be able to afford good education and welfare for everyone by initiating an international tax-cooperation. Stop the race to the bottom in social standards, start an international cooperation to raise them.

Tags: commerce, logueur de la semaine, providence