Globalization: a hard sell

For the Register's decade wrap-up, we three writers didn't have much trouble picking out negative trends, but Cathy wanted each of us to find something positive to write about. I picked globalization and free trade -- despised and blamed for all kinds of troubles and maladies -- see the comment that takes it on faith that free trade means jobs shipped overseas when every reasonably competent study shows the opposite, that trade increases the amount of jobs available. But despite the fact that most companies that do international business at all are now multinationals without a real national identity, most Americans still see trade as an "us vs. them" proposition. I don't know if it will ever change. Trade and furriners are just too easy targets to be blamed for troubles mostly caused by our own government.