November 1st, 2022 | ryan tyler

Hyperglobalization has failed

Since the 1990s, rapid and extreme globalization has transformed into something called hyperglobalization.

When we experience shortages and supply chain disruptions because of what happens in China, it's time to start coming to terms with the failures of globalization. By exporting our manufacturing and importing most of our essential goods, we have handicapped ourselves and undermined our own independence as a country. Eastern Canadians import their oil from other countries, while prairie provinces export their grains to have them turned into pasta and cereal, only for the finished products to be bought back at inflated prices. When the manufactures and refiners we rely on can't supply our needs and satisfy our demand, we face inflation and shortages. All of these things can be avoided with less globalization and more nationalistic policies.

Hyperglobalization is a more modern phenomenon, first brought to usage by Dani Rodrik in 2011. It describes the rapid and intense globalization that began in the 1990s and resulted in an increasingly integrated and interdependent global community—one that our woke leaders and indoctrinated politicians have been pushing for more than 20 years. When we talk about globalization here, we'll be referring to this new, modern form of hyperglobalization and the globalist zealots who have been building policies around it.

As politicians around the world were demonizing nationalism, Canada was becoming more dependent on China and the United States for essential goods. For environmentalists, who have been blinded by liberalism and left-wing fantasies, the carbon emissions required to fulfill the needs of globally dependent countries should be under greater scrutiny. As fuel-guzzling tankers, planes, trains and trucks ship our essential goods back and forth across borders and oceans, countless tons of carbon are being generated. According to the EPA, nearly 30% of global carbon emissions are generated by transportation.

For the rest of us, the global supply disruptions are a bigger concern.

More recently, Canadian parents have been left struggling to find baby formula and children's Tylenol because of manufacturing disruptions and recalls in the United States. It turns out, most of North America's baby formula comes from two manufactures, one of which had a major recall and closures—which, in turn, caused its competitor to be overbought and to face unsustainable levels of demand. This shortage eventually found its way into the Canadian supply.

Since children returned to school and daycare, U.S.-based Johnson & Johnson has been unable to keep up with the demand for Tylenol, particularly the suspension formula for children. This has caused pharmacies and stores to run out of alternative generic brands as well.

Since the pandemic, more countries have come to realize the dangers of globalization. Not to mention the indiscriminate open-border policies that allowed the virus to spread rapidly around the globe within six months. In January of 2020, when Donald Trump restricted travel from China, his opponents called him racist and un-American.

Almost three years later, as China presses on with its zero-virus strategy, lockdowns have caused further delays and disruptions in the country's manufacturing sector. These disruptions are being felt across the globe and in countries that have become highly dependent on imports from China. As the war in Ukraine rages on, fertilizer shortages are threatening the global food supply and natural gas shortages are looming over Europe.

As sane readers, you need to ask yourselves why Europe has never bothered to import a majority of its natural gas from Norway; why Eastern Canada doesn't get most of its oil from Alberta; why Saskatchewan and Manitoba don't manufacture more pasta and cereal; why Canada doesn't produce more nitrogen fertilizer; why 75% of Canada's plastic and polymer producers are east of Manitoba; why Canada had no capacity to produce vaccines prior to 2021; and why Canada's largest imports are cars.

The sane readers will also understand that a reversal of hyperglobalization doesn't mean we should close all our borders, end all free-trade agreements and retract into isolated communities. It means we should take a few steps back, pause and re-evaluate everything we have been doing for the past 20 to 50 years. It's also important to acknowledge that certain levels of globalization are inevitable, especially as new technologies continue to connect us. Limited, reasoned and mutually beneficial globalization will always be a good thing. What we've been seeing lately, however, is the opposite.

If you're an environmentalist, you should think about how much carbon is emitted when trucks and trains transport Alberta oil to Ontario and Quebec to be turned into plastic, while pipeline projects are shut down to stop Alberta oil from heating homes in the same provinces. How much carbon is emitted by the tankers delivering Saudi oil to eastern provinces? How much fuel is being burned to transport prairie durum to the United States, Ontario, Quebec and then back again as pasta? How much fossil fuel does it take to import fertilizer from China and the United States to grow that durum?

What ever happened to sustainability? We should be working to sustain and build our independence as a country.

There are a lot of logistical and economic realities involved in preventing more reasonable, local solutions. However, much of the irrational and ludicrous policies involved with the lack of localization in Canada come from politicians. They come from ideologues and zealots who belong to a global religion based on weird and unrealistic dreams. The idea of a globally connected, post-national, multicultural utopia is about as foolish and idealistic as expecting everyone to have unprotected sex without catching any diseases.

On a timeline of ages and civilizations, hyperglobalization lasted about as long as a virus in sunlight.

Canada's decline in manufacturing began at the start of the new Millennium. Since then, it is estimated that the employment rate among men aged 21 to 55 fell by 10% between 2000 and 2015. Between 2017 and 2021, Canadian imports from China increased by almost 50%, from $50B to nearly $70B. Canada's top imports from China include electronics, medical supplies, plastics, rubbers, clothing and industrial machinery. Canada's largest trade partner, which accounts for a vast percentage of imports, is the United States. Top imports from the U.S. include processed foods, agricultural products, cars, plastics and beef. In the past couple of years, massive supply chain problems have heightened fears of worsening shortages that could stretch deep into 2023.

Provincial policymakers are as much to blame as federal leaders.

In the coming years, more voters and leaders will start accepting reality and admitting this experiment has failed. What was once a global religion will evolve into an afterthought. We're a long way from becoming a truly independent and self-reliant country, but our leaders and the electorate will start changing and moving toward more nationalistic policies within a decade. As the screws of globalization fall out, more and more people will start looking for an alternative.

It might not take political parties long to reverse the current narrative and start pushing more protectionist and nationalist policies. At some point, we'll start seeing environmentalists come to terms with how globalization exasperates climate change and liberals come to terms with how globalization has enabled dictatorships and human rights violators around the globe. Eventually, corporations, political parties, media and journalists will start denying they ever supported the woke, globalist ideas that caused most of our economic and social turmoil.

As China continues to fall out of favour with everyone, as Russia pushes further into Ukraine and as the West continues exposing its true colours, more and more people will begin pushing harder for change. At the moment, protesters in France are demanding that their country abandon Nato; voters in Italy and Sweden have elected right-wing governments; liberal Vancouver just elected a conservative mayor; Ottawa voters blocked a leftist lunatic from becoming their mayor; Switzerland is veering right; Republicans look poised to win big in U.S. midterms; and nationalism, conservatism and right-leaning ideas are becoming more palatable to voters.

Right-wing ideas were never that bad to begin with.

Journalists and politically aligned media organizations have jumped through hoops to convince the public that “right-wing” is the equivalent of racism, white supremacy, Nazism and hatred. The failures of hyperglobalization, left-wing utopianism and wokeness are waking more people up and elevating their desire for change. Basic and old-fashioned principles like the nuclear family, politics-free education, stronger borders, biological science, reason, open debate and individual autonomy are gaining more traction in the wake of mounting failures within the authoritarian church of liberalism.

That won't stop the last remaining holdouts from carrying on with their failed narratives. The people who have spent the last 25 years pushing disastrous policies aren't about to give up just yet, or admit that they've failed. They'll try a few more big things before they're finally forced into obscurity by fed up voters and protesters. We won't start seeing a full-scale upheaval and reversal for at least another ten years, but the rumblings of change are already being felt under our feet.

Hyperglobalization isn't failing—it has failed. We have already reached the end point. Now we just need to wait patiently for reality to show up.

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