The Race To The Bottom: Why A Worldwide Worker Surplus And Uncontrolled Free Trade Are Sinking American Living Standards

by Alan Tonelson

Overview

With the end of the 1990s economic boom, The Race to the Bottom deftly explores how the United States has entered a no-win global competition in which the countries with the lowest wages, weakest workplace safety laws, and toughest repression of unions win investment from the U.S. and Europe. Tonelson analyzes how the entry of such population giants as China, India, and Mexico into the global market has accelerated the erosion of wages and labor standards around the world. And he describes how an ever-larger share of this low-wage competition is hitting not just sectors like apparel and toys, but also many of America's highest wage industries like aerospace and software. Tonelson explains why the re-education and retraining programs touted by many political leaders offer little but false hopes to most U.S. workers as he outlines the real decisions Washington needs to make to ensure long-term prosperity for the U.S. and the rest of the world. Updated with a new prologue from the author.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813340241
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	08/31/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1580L (what's this?)

About the Author

Described in the New Republic as "probably the most significant economist spreading the nationalist gospel," Alan Tonelson has been active in national trade politics for a decade. A Research Fellow at the United States Business and Industry Council, he lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

	Preface	vii
	Acknowledgments	xvii
	Prologue to the paperback edition	xix
Chapter 1	Introduction--A Tale of Two Cities	1
Chapter 2	Some Boom	19
Chapter 3	What's Globalization Got to Do with It?	35
Chapter 4	The Global Workforce Explosion	53
Chapter 5	A New Kind of Trade	81
Chapter 6	High-Tech Job Flight	99
Chapter 7	False Hopes	137
Chapter 8	Toward a New Race	153
	Notes	175
	Index	211

Editorial Reviews

The Race to the Bottom fails to examine any positive aspects of globalization, it is provocative and should lead to further debate about how we should engage the global economy.
— New York Times Book Review

David Gartner

At a time when new economy cheerleading continues to drift from solid data and cogent argument, Tonelson's book provides a welcome voice of reasoned dissent.

Washington Post BookWorld

...all of us need to get informed, and The Race to the Bottom is certainly a good place to start.

Inside Business

Amidst America's growing infatuation with globalization, Alan Tonelson is one of the few articulate voices asking the hard questions and pointing out the pitfalls.
— BusinessWeek

Paul Magnusson

A well-informed and often witty assault.

Wilson Quarterly

In The Race to the Bottom Alan Tonelson does a first-rate job of familiarizing us with the facts that just don't fit the dogma.

Denver Post

[Alan Tonelson is] probably the most significant economist spreading the nationalist gospel.

New Republic

...[an] articulate, passionate, yet thoughtful book.

Chronicles

...provocative and should lead to further debate about how we should engage the global economy.

New York Times

Current United States government policy may celebrate the economic benefits of globalization, but Tonelson, a policy analyst with the private U.S. Business and Industry Council, counters with a skeptical "Show me the money!" on behalf of the U.S. worker. Burrowing into statistics on employment patterns and wage trends in industries like automobiles, household appliances and textiles, Tonelson makes a forceful and engaging argument that globalization, with its attendant rush by multinational corporations to cheaper sources of labor, has been partially responsible for what he sees as a shift from high-wage to low-wage industries in the U.S. (e.g., an Economic Policy Institute study shows that between 1973 and 1998, real hourly wages fell for the bottom 60% of the U.S. workforce). In response to multinational corporations crowing that globalization has increased U.S. exports to emerging markets, Tonelson urges a closer examination of the patterns of trade. He points out that U.S. exports to Third World countries are dominated by manufacturing and intermediate goods that are used to build the industrial capacity that then produces goods for direct export to the United States. The net result--lost jobs, lost factories and a growing U.S. trade deficit--lead Tonelson to question whether the current U.S. policy is anything but de facto foreign aid at the expense of U.S. workers. Though the uninspired jacket belies Tonelson's lively prose, readers of sophisticated financial journalism will appreciate this well-researched and politically savvy treatise, which goes beyond criticism to propose thoughtful economic alternatives that Tonelson hopes will enable expanded free trade without imposing more burdens on American labor. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

As evidenced by the WTO riots in Seattle in December of 1999, the public holds serious concerns about the effects of the new-world economy. Rightly so, argues Tonelson, a research fellow at the US Business and Industry Council. With extensive evidence, and in language designed for the popular audience, he demonstrates that the result of intense global competition is a marked decline in the standard of living for most citizens as jobs are exported to those countries with not only the lowest taxes, but also the weakest workplace safety laws and toughest unionization laws. The jobs disappearing overseas, he shows, are not just those in manual labor but increasingly highly skilled jobs in aerospace and software design. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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