… is from page 10 of Martin Wolf’s excellent 2004 book, Why Globalization Works:
[A]nti-globalization protesters … fall rather in the category of spoiled children. But they are ‘our’ children. If we fail to persuade the idealistic young of the merits of a liberal global economic order, it may founder before the certainty of its enemies.
DBx: When Wolf wrote these words at the dawn of the 21st century, the loudest and most prominent opponents of free trade and globalization were young people. Today’s young people – being, on average, no more economically informed and wise than was that earlier generation – are just as likely as was that earlier generation to oppose free trade and globalization. If today’s young people are more silent on the issue than was the earlier generation, it’s only because they don’t want to be seen to be in league with Donald Trump and other conservative economic nationalists; after all, Trump and his MAGA fans support the same economically ignorant protectionist policies that the 1999 protestors in Seattle supported.
Nearly all members of my geezer generation who are all in on MAGA protectionism have no hope of being enlightened about the economics and ethics of free trade. Their minds are closed. But young people are generally more open-minded. We free traders must direct the bulk of our educational and persuasive efforts toward the young.
