Trudeau’s globalization attack light on facts
Capitalism is not failing for the middle class
Justin Trudeau’s speech last week to the World Economic Forum in Davos was one of the most striking attacks on economic globalization by a Canadian prime minister in recent memory.
Speaking of “the importance of progressive values in the context of globalization,” Trudeau was in full form as a tireless and righteous defender of the middle class.
In an astoundingly jaw-dropping display of his anti-corporatist world view, Trudeau lectured his listeners on the apparent realities of the current global landscape.
“Companies avoid taxes and post record profits with one hand,” Trudeau said, “while slashing benefits with the other.” For those who still believe the fallacy that the Liberals under Trudeau represent a “centrist” solution in the Canadian political landscape, Trudeau’s Davos speech should be an eye opener.
There is no doubt Trudeau should be unequivocally commended for his strong calls for greater gender parity in the workplace, a theme that formed the skeleton of his Davos speech. But on the topic of globalization, Trudeau’s views should terrify anyone who really cares about the growth of the middle class and the ability of the private sector to foster that growth.
Simply put, Trudeau’s views on globalization are wrong.
Contrary to the anti-globalist rhetoric advanced by politicians such Jeremy Corbyn on the left or Donald Trump on the right, the “middle class” has never been better off. In a 2017 report, the prestigious Brookings Institution suggested that, by 2020, the global middle class will represent the majority of our planet’s population for the first time ever.
Perhaps even more striking is the report’s claim that, for the next five years, roughly 160 million people will join the middle class every single year. “At a global level,” the report says, “we are witnessing the most rapid expansion of the middle class the world has ever seen.”
That’s roughly four-and-a-half times the population of Canada entering the global middle class in a single year. And that’s four-and-a-half times the population of Canada that will have better access to education, better access to health care, and a greater shot at a life of dignity and security. Hardly a failure of capitalism, if you ask me.
Notwithstanding the fact that Trudeau is generally seen as embodying a set of modern and contemporary ideals, his Davos speech did little more than highlight his commitment to the antiquated view that the state must play an overwhelming role in public life.
If you doubt this, consider for a moment the growth of the state in the Canadian economy since the Liberals came to power. From a federal carbon tax to an expanded Canada Pension Plan to new legislation that aims to expand diversity in the workplace (Bill C-25) to a more generous Universal Child Care Benefit, the Trudeau Liberals appear intent on rewriting the rules of Canada’s economic landscape.
And with our country currently holding the G7 presidency, the platform is there for Trudeau to continue pushing this approach at the global level, as he seems to have already done with the recent signing of the TransPacific Partnership.
Trudeau has made the growth of the middle class his government’s central priority, using this goal to justify the Liberals’ various attempts to expand its reach. At Davos, Trudeau spoke extensively of the need for governments to more effectively address the voices of marginalized populations, rightly citing the rise of populism as a threat to global stability.
But rather than pointing the finger at corporations or the global economic system — effectively replacing one form of fact-flexible populism with another — Trudeau would be wise to remember the recent growth of the global middle class has been enabled in part by nearly three decades of governments around the world willingly shrinking their reach in favour of greater economic liberalism.
Strange that such incredible growth could have taken place in an era when companies are apparently behaving so badly.