Buying power and globalisation

Paul Fabra reflects on the relationship between globalisation and the drop in buying power in France: "The decline in buying power we are now seeing is poisoning the relationship between the government and the people. This new national crisis is bound up with the decline of capitalist structures which almost all the so-called 'developed' countries are experiencing. ... Roughly 20 years ago a sentiment of unease emerged on both sides of the Atlantic. ... But perhaps the chief cause lies in the dearth of perspectives and the improbability of significant salary increases. For the first time in two centuries, with the exception of the Great Depression in the 1930s, it seems that the living standard of a majority of the population is endangered. ... And today, as in the past, David Ricardo's concept of 'comparative advantage' is central to the debate because It remains the sole known justification for the global liberalisation in trade."

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