Nothing could be further from the truth. Our increasingly globalized economic landscape has delivered returns that reach far beyond financial gains—in the past 20 years, global inequality, poverty, and child labor decreased drastically, while working conditions, employment opportunities, and wages have improved. In other words, globalization lifts all boats.
To refute the bipartisan cadre of Americans who are increasingly hostile to free markets, Cato launched Defending Globalization, a multiyear, multimedia project featuring new analyses from Cato’s economic policy scholars and outside experts.
Scott Lincicome is leading this Institutewide effort to make the case for the free movement of goods, money, ideas, and workers across borders and to make it convincing for every kind of audience across all generations and ideological leanings. This project is designed to move public opinion and renew the policymaking consensus in Washington that global interdependence isn’t just a matter of good economics—it’s good morals.
Behind the data, charts, and infographics underlining the benefits of global, open markets are very real human lives. Trade barriers, tariffs, and protectionist policies not only hurt the economy and take away jobs here at home but also can mean the difference between poverty and prosperity for millions of people worldwide. The Defending Globalization project gives voice to the many people who have better, safer, healthier, and more prosperous lives because of free trade and voluntary exchange.
A webpage dedicated to the Globalization Project features research, essays, and videos of events and interviews with leading experts in economics and trade policy. The webpage will soon feature new polling, merchandise, and a video series highlighting the stories of people pulled out of poverty thanks to global markets—as well as those facing dire circumstances due to anti–free market policies.
The Defending Globalization project webpage is continuously updated with content and analyses that respond to the issues of the day. As politicians compete to be the most restrictionist, this project will rebut their claims with facts and appeals to the human costs of antiglobalization policies.
