In Defense of Global Capitalism

Rating:
Summary: Steam for Global Capitalism
Review: "When I say that I mean to defend capitalism," proclaims Norberg, "what I have in mind is the capitalistic freedom to proceed by trial and error, without having to ask rulers and border officials for permission first."

He erects a barrage of facts and figures to make the case that trade is good. For example, real incomes among the top quintile of income earners have risen 75% over the past three decades and real incomes among the bottom quintile have increased 106%. Life expectancy in developing economies has increased, infant fatalities have fallen, and people living in developing economies are eating better and obtaining more education. Read the book to learn why the widening "gap" between rich and poor is a falsehood. Although most of the world is still poor compared to the West, their hardship is not because of the West. According to Norberg, "The uneven distribution of wealth in the world is due to the uneven distribution of capitalism."

Protectionists predict that capitalists will locate plants in countries where wages or environmental standards are lowest. Capitalists are not only intent on paying lower wages. "If they were," points out Norberg, "the world's aggregate production would be concentrated in Nigeria." Multinational corporations also seek "social and political stability, the rule of law, secure property rights, free markets, good infrastructure, and skilled manpower." There is evidence that the quality of the environment worsens in the early stages of development. However prosperous people can afford cleaner air and water. Norberg reports that "the turning point generally comes before a country's per capita GDP has reached $8,000." When people earn more than that, their governments adopt environmental regulations. The point is that trade and growth are the means to a cleaner environment.

In addition to trade issues and capitalism, one may also learn a lot about developmental economics and international finance. Norberg observes that people fail to appreciate global capitalism during the good times and then blame the process when the going gets tough. "Globalization will not keep moving under its own steam if no one stands up for it," he asserts. In Defense of Global Capitalism is perhaps worth a ton of coal in the engine of global capitalism.

Rating:
Summary: Norberg deserves a nobel prize
Review: Excellent book, I would like to shove this book down the throats of all the idiots who protest free trade and globilization, and on the other end of the spectrum, down the throats of the beauracrats who hold the process up.

I only wish there was a way to enforce the profound and common sense ideals that lie within this book.

I am a conservative who is now in full support of free trade. Why rob citizens of third world countries of the same opportunities we have in America? Through free trade democracy can take form in the weakest of societies and everyone as a whole can benefit, it begets education, security, and all of the other luxuries we take for granted. I hope to see in my lifetime the ideals in this book take hold in every corner of the world.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing new...
Review: First of all, is this book really necessary? Doesn't global capitalism rule the world right now? Anyway, it's an interesting read for all right-wingers that want to hear safe and familiar stuff without too many unpleasant surprises. Also left-wingers and liberals can have some use of this book. Because it's a good chance to get to know your enemy. And all you treacherous liberals can relax now; there isn't much to be afraid of. The book is very much the usual mix of right-wing economic theories described as absolute universal truths and a bunch of disconnected diagrams that could prove whatever you want. Many of his statements are, to say the least, dubious. For example - Norberg states that capitalism is the main reason workers has it better nowadays than before. I think that that statement will make many workers from the last century start laughing in their graves. That's a bit too easy & bias. I can admit that to a lesser extent there is some truth to that statement, but without labor unions workers would still be working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week with lousy wages and without any social benefits. Just ask many workers in the third world about that. In those parts of the world many companies still harass and kill organized workers.
Johan Norberg also tends to purposely use the word capitalism instead of the word democracy. But I know several capitalistic countries/regions that are at the very best dysfunctional democracies. Places like Singapore, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Argentina, Brazil and Chile. You can also argue that people like Murdoch and Berlusconi are using capitalism to suppress democracy. I think it would be interesting with a discussion why it would be better with huge corporations like Microsoft and Monsanto monitoring and controlling us than governments. Johan Norberg doesn't like the term corporate dictatorship. But many corporations strive towards bigger unities with a monopoly as an ideal finishing point. I think that monopoly is dictatorship and it is also a very real part of capitalism. Norberg is only talking about capitalism in a very utopian way. If it doesn't work, then it's not capitalistic enough. That's a very easy way out of every problem that turns up in his argumentation. If you're a communist you can use the same argument by saying that the Soviet Union failed because it wasn't communistic enough!!
It is a very ideological text and Johan Norberg seems to have a complete trust in all corporations and companies desire to do good deeds for humanity. I don't share that trust. But some of Norbergs views are very important even for a liberal as myself - like peoples right to free movement and noticing the huge problems that the industrialized countries protectionism and subsidies creates for third world countries. I recommend that you read it together with Joseph Stiglitz "Globalization & its discontents" for a really interesting experience.

Rating:
Summary: An informative and knowledgeable guide to global capitalism
Review: Globalization is good: that's the message of Johan Norberg's In Defense Of Global Capitalism, an informative and knowledgeable guide to global capitalism which rebuts the basic tenants of the anti-globalization movement by showing how the spread of globalization has resulted in newfound opportunities for world advancement and freedom. The focus on capitalism's positive effects on world poverty go far in refuting the common perceptions and arguments, providing a reasoned discourse rebutting anti-globalization naysayers.

Rating:
Summary: Globalization as capitalism without borders
Review: Having lived and come over from the left, Norberg makes a compelling case for globalization as a model for success. Contrary to the negative review from the Swedish "assassin", globalization works. The assassin's list of dysfunctional democracies is, even at its worst, a list of democracies and, contrary to his opinion, examples of good progress towards economic and political freedom.

Globalization has become capitalism without borders. Capitalism means the right to own and the right to trade -- freely. The problems have more to do with what can and can not cross borders in a world economy where geopolitics and terrorism limit the rights or possibilities of people to move freely. There is still a strong urge to maintain national integrity and the natural defense of one's borders and culture. And, given the choice, people head for countries with greater economic and political freedom, not just where the natural wealth and resources exist. People are now the world's greatest resource and they are more mobile than ever.

Norberg pulls together multiple, massive statistical studies of real progress in the world resulting from greater political and economic freedom. They go hand in hand. They serve the liberation not only of countries and cultures, but also women who, one hundred years ago left any country short on its claim of true democracy by prohibiting them the ballot and/or the right to economic freedom and ownership.

David Landes' "Wealth and poverty of nations" made this case from an historic perspective. Countries and their people and institutions need to be able to produce things of value, educate their young, innovate in their methods, emulate success, discriminate based on merit, and allow people the right to retain (some or much of) the fruit of their labor. Globalization and capitalism, like democracy, are the worst of all possible forms of economics, except, as Churchill advised, for all other forms of economics that have been tried from time to time.

All these data and global views can be a bit dry at times and it should be safe to assume that English is not Norberg's first language (although he writes better than most American university students with English as their first language!) yet it is well worth the detail. He questions conventional (i.e., casual) wisdom. Anecdotes are illustrative and global.

Rating:
Summary: The Good News
Review: In this illuminating and accessible book, Norberg offers a systematic, detailed and complete rebuttal of the claims of the enemies of capitalism and globalization. Backed up by verifiable facts from a huge variety of reputable sources, he demolishes every lie of the leftists and environmentalists. He also investigates the other side of certain half-truths and gives an optimistic assessment of how capitalism, freedom and globalization are improving human lives around the globe.

Norberg looks at certain deceptive ideas, for example the one that claims the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, giving us the good news of rapidly diminishing poverty and pointing out that the measure should be how well one is doing, not how well situated one is in relation to others. He explores the facts concerning issues like hunger, education, freedom and equality. Improvements have been particularly spectacular in China and India since these countries started reforming their economic systems.

He shows how the walls against ideas, people and goods are collapsing with dictatorships and how women benefit from the spread of capitalism. The best cure for poverty is growth; prices and profits serve as a signalling system in the market economy whereby the worker, the entrepreneur and the investor all benefit. The importance of property rights are pointed out, with reference to the work of De Soto, and the author compares the success of the Asian Tigers with the sorry state of Africa, although even here the open societies like South Africa, Mauritius and Botswana are doing well.

Norberg dismisses the hoary old argument that western countries are rich because they stole the resources of Third World countries in colonial times. The affluent world has grown faster since shedding its colonies, many rich countries (like Sweden and Switzerland) never had any colonies, whilst some of the world's least developed countries (Nepal, Liberia) have never been colonies. Nor have countries with natural resources as a rule grown as fast as those without, for example Singapore. A brilliant example of free trade success is Estonia, which soon after independence in 1992 abolished all tariffs.

The 20 economically most liberal countries have a per capita GDP of approximately 29 times that of the economically least liberal. The uneven distribution of wealth in the world is due to the uneven distribution of capitalism and the losers of the world are those that have been left out of globalisation.

Norberg attacks agricultural subsidies in the affluent countries, showing that this ridiculous practice harms those countries themselves and the developing world. He demonstrates the absurdity of Europe's Common Agricultural Policy, a bureaucratic nightmare that channels nearly 40% of the entire EU budget to less than 1% of the population. Latin America still suffers from decades of privilege and protectionism, but Chile is a good example of how quickly a country can transform itself with the right policies, to create a high standard of living.

Norberg investigates a vast range of issues, from development assistance (It is wasteful in that it normally involves the transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries), child labour and working conditions. He argues convincingly that free trade and capitalism alleviate social problems. He also proves that prosperity is beneficial for the environment, refuting the spurious claims of environmentalists and quoting from Bjorn Lomborg's remarkable book, The Skeptical Environmentalist.

Norberg considers every angle, including issues like "cultural imperialism" and the risible notion of the "dictatorship of the market", showing how capitalism and democracy go hand in hand in creating a better world. The book includes an index and 14 pages of notes. The text is enhanced by graphs demonstrating the facts and arguments. He concludes the book on an optimistic note, i.e. that people are beginning to wake up to the fact that they aren't just the tools of society but ends in themselves and that freedom and democracy will spread and continue to improve the lives of everyone on the planet.

Rating:
Summary: Wealth on Nations for a new millenium
Review: The anti-globalization debate is dead, and Norberg killed it. Listen to the debates over globalization, and you are likely to hear the same arguments uttered over and over by every anti-globalist/anti-capitalist. Norberg torpedoes every one of their arguments. Faced with irrefutable statistics and graphs, there is no option left for the world but to conclude that free market capitalism is the way of the future.

Rating:
Summary: Summary of In Defence of Global Capitalism
Review: The first book to rebut - systematically and thoroughly - the world picture and tenets of the anti-globalisation movement has been written by a 27-year-old Swede - and former anarchist. It quickly became a bestseller in Sweden after its publication in May 2001, and now there is this English version.

For some time, opponents of globalisation have been able to spread myths about capitalism. They say that free trade and free markets make the world a more unequal place, that capitalism holds people in poverty, that economic growth harms the environment, that multinational corporations keep wages and labour standards on a low level, and that free financial markets cause crises.

This is not correct. In Defence of Global Capitalism is the book that systematically challenges and refutes the anti-capitalist assumptions. With hard facts, statistics and simple graphs, Johan Norberg explains why capitalism is in the process of creating a better world. But the book is also personally written, with an emphasis on values, and the fact that globalisation gives opportunities and freedom to the world's poor. The book illustrates this with concrete examples of people and countries that have prospered thanks to globalisation, and those that have suffered because of isolation.

Johan Norberg shows that the diffusion of capitalism in the last decades has lowered poverty rates and created opportunities for individuals all over the world. Living standards and life expectancy has risen fast in most places. World hunger, infant mortality and inequality have diminished. This is because of an economic and technological development that is the result of free market policies. The poor countries that have liberalized their economies have shown impressive results, while those that have not are stuck in deep misery. Therefore, we need more capitalism and globalisation if we want a better world, not less.

The Swedish writer, Johan Norberg, has an MA in history of ideas. He is the author of books on human rights, the history of liberalism and the Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg. Johan Norberg is devoted to globalisation and individual liberty. ...

Rating:
Summary: Economics from a firehose
Review: When a guest of my wife's saw this book on a table in our living room, he sneered "who needs to defend capitalism? It's *everywhere*!"

I start this review with that anecdote because apparently the title of this tome mustn't be terribly successful. Mr. Norberg spends 300 pages telling us in crushing detail why it isn't 'everywhere'--and more importantly, why not.

And a solid defense it is. The book is well researched and simply relentless. Page after page buries us with statistics telling us why capitalism is (in Churchhill's paraphrased words) "the worst system of government, except for all the others." Mr. Norberg tackles globalization late in the book to fill out the picture but never strays far from his main thesis: that freedom, free enterprise, democracy and the free movement of capital are mutually reinforcing.

For an American to read a vigorous defense of capitalism coming from a European was almost as exciting for me as discovering some of Mr. Norberg's references: the French economist Patrick Messerlin, for example, who points out that the $180 billion a year in EU subsidies of agriculture and basic industrial manufacturing goes to "save" 3 percent of jobs in these sectors. That comes out to a cool $200,000 per worker--a pretty fine price to keep out competition. Given these (and many, many more) eye-popping numbers, Norberg often strays from simply reporting statistics to morally defending his subject. As an answer to the "yes, but ..." critics, this was wholly welcome.

Still, the book is far from perfect. The statistical emphasis, while impressive, is occasionally numbing and I could almost hear the left wing counter-arguments ("statistics are necessarily selective" ... " you can use them to prove anything") in my head while reading. The section and chapter organization appears haphazard and the chapter titles give little or no information ("... and it's no coincidence," "Race to the top"). To be fair, these semantics could be from translation--as could an occasionally defensive tone.

Overall, however, these defects don't tarnish the overall case. Mr. Norberg has done his homework and anyone interested in a thorough--if a bit actuarial--defense of economic liberty will enjoy this read. As a bonus--if tackling this cover-to-cover becomes a bit much--a superb index lists almost every economic issue imaginable (from 'Absolute Poverty' to 'Zimbabwe') and serves as an excellent reference.

Rating:
Summary: Economics from a firehose
Review: When a guest of my wife's saw this book on a table in our living room, he sneered "who needs to defend capitalism? It's *everywhere*!"

I start this review with that anecdote because apparently the title of this tome mustn't be terribly successful. Mr. Norberg spends 300 pages telling us in crushing detail why it isn't 'everywhere'--and more importantly, why not.

And a solid defense it is. The book is well researched and simply relentless. Page after page buries us with statistics telling us why capitalism is (in Churchhill's paraphrased words) "the worst system of government, except for all the others." Mr. Norberg tackles globalization late in the book to fill out the picture but never strays far from his main thesis: that freedom, free enterprise, democracy and the free movement of capital are mutually reinforcing.

For an American to read a vigorous defense of capitalism coming from a European was almost as exciting for me as discovering some of Mr. Norberg's references: the French economist Patrick Messerlin, for example, who points out that the $180 billion a year in EU subsidies of agriculture and basic industrial manufacturing goes to "save" 3 percent of jobs in these sectors. That comes out to a cool $200,000 per worker--a pretty fine price to keep out competition. Given these (and many, many more) eye-popping numbers, Norberg often strays from simply reporting statistics to morally defending his subject. As an answer to the "yes, but ..." critics, this was wholly welcome.

Still, the book is far from perfect. The statistical emphasis, while impressive, is occasionally numbing and I could almost hear the left wing counter-arguments ("statistics are necessarily selective" ... " you can use them to prove anything") in my head while reading. The section and chapter organization appears haphazard and the chapter titles give little or no information ("... and it's no coincidence," "Race to the top"). To be fair, these semantics could be from translation--as could an occasionally defensive tone.

Overall, however, these defects don't tarnish the overall case. Mr. Norberg has done his homework and anyone interested in a thorough--if a bit actuarial--defense of economic liberty will enjoy this read. As a bonus--if tackling this cover-to-cover becomes a bit much--a superb index lists almost every economic issue imaginable (from 'Absolute Poverty' to 'Zimbabwe') and serves as an excellent reference.