TRICKLE DOWN POISON
PUBLIC IN MAJOR WESTERN COUNTRIES FED UP WITH GLOBALIZATION, CORPORATE
LEADERS
CHRIS GILES, FINANCIAL TIMES - A popular backlash against globalization
and the leaders of the world's largest companies is sweeping all rich
countries, an FT/Harris poll shows. Large majorities of people in the US
and in Europe want higher taxation for the rich and even pay caps for
corporate executives to counter what they believe are unjustified
rewards and the negative effects of globalization.
Viewing globalization as an overwhelmingly negative force, citizens of
rich countries are looking to governments to cushion the blows they
perceive have come from the liberalization of their economies to trade
with emerging countries.
Those polled in Britain, France, the US and Spain were about three times
more likely to say globalization was having a negative rather than a
positive effect on their countries. The majority was smaller in Germany,
with its large export base.
Corporate leaders fared little better, with 5 per cent or fewer of those
polled in the US and all large European economies (except Italy) saying
they had a great deal of admiration for those who run large companies.
In these countries, between a third and a half said they had no
admiration at all for corporate bosses. . .