Tariffs and Resentment

 In 2015 I got a week-long residency at Royal Court Theatre with seven other American playwrights. First time in London. I made the mistake of withdrawing money from an ATM machine in Euros. No local business took Euros and even looked resentfully upon me trying to use that currency. I shrugged it off, 'oh well, dumb American mistake, my bad.' I walked around the neighborhood, went to the park and pubs. Londoners were pissed. According to them, Chelsea and the Royal Court area used to be a thriving, ecclectic community and now it was just a warehouse for rich ppl's money. Locals blamed Saudis and Arab billionaires who purchased condos to just park their money in London. Prices went up, ppl moved out, and now the area was just a foreign billionaire's bank vault. I don't know whether this hypothesis was true but the anger was palpable. There didn't seem to be any answer to grievances. There was also a rising anti-Asian resentment. But I had a great time. And then the UK passed Brexit a year later. Ppl were shocked. UK was divorcing itself from EU and globalism. The blame fell on rural voters, uneducated, stupid ppl, Russian bots and Russian propaganda. No one blamed how pissed off Londoners felt that they were driven out of their neighborhood by 'the other.'

Eight yrs later, I'm in London for a few months. I'm staying -for free- in a luxury apt in Camden. The cleaners of the apt complex were mostly Polish women, who would creep around with a quiet paranoia. I read the news and discovered that London was now going through a wave of anti-Polish hate crimes. Eastern European were the lower-class scapegoat for taking service industry jobs while Saudi billionaires were still the wealthy-class scapegoats. I took the train to Paris and there was a taxi strike when I arrived. Not joking. First time in Paris and they were striking b/c Parisian drivers felt like they way of life was being undermined (second time I was in Paris there was a transportation strike). Then I went back to London -where a taxi and public transportation strike was starting- to grab my bags and head over to Berlin. Berliners were pissed off that they couldn't afford to live there. And then I went to Amsterdam and young ppl were pissed off that they couldn't afford to live there. And then I went to Venice and a college student approached me at a cafe while I was eating lunch. He wanted to talk to someone about how much he loved Kanye West and rap music (so I guess I'm the easy target). I asked him what he was doing after college and he said nothing. He couldn't get a job and he couldn't afford to live in Venice even though he was born there. Next, Copenhagen...one of the happiest places on earth allegedly. A lot of young ppl on anti-depressant medication (free b/c of socialist medicine so yay) who were underemployed and morose.

In these beautiful European cities, young ppl quietly seethed or were low-key depressed. And I didn't understand b/c the EU works, right? Globalism is good, right? European countries are so much smarter and more advanced than Americans, right? So how come ppl are seething and blaming 'the other?'

If globalism works, how come it displaces so many ppl and forces them to move to cheaper areas, thereby pushing ppl out of those areas and triggering a chain reaction of everyone moving downward and pushing the class below them out? How come the working class and middle class in every city fill squeezed out by housing prices and standard of living?

In 1992, H. Ross Perot ran against NAFTA. He was running for president but really he was running against globalism. The anger and fear that NAFTA was going to decimate American factory jobs was palpable. Perot and Bush split the white vote, leading to Clinton's victory. NAFTA lived, Perot skittered off stage, but the anger of working ppl seeing billionaires pop champagne bottles at record profits while they struggled to pay rent continued to grow.

And so now here we are over 30 yrs later. Destroying global trade and undoing the system. Tariffs and the idea to rip the whole thing up. It's not just a Trump thing. The resentment and anger is worldwide. If you got rid of Trump tomorrow all the young ppl who can't afford rent in neighborhoods being bought up by conglomerates would still seethe. In Europe, Canada (housing crisis there too), America. All the young couples who can't start a family would still feel resentment as mainstream media tells them 'the economy is better than ever.' For who? As proponents of globalism and building bridges, we have failed to show ppl how their lives are getting better. Is it because we are too elitists? Or is it b/c globalism really only benefits the top 1%? Or is b/c we do not even debate the issue any more?

Globalism may be the best system, but it pisses off so many people. And no one has figured out a way to explain to young ppl who are still living at home b/c they can't afford an apt how globalism benefits them? When globalism in your local neighborhood means that int'l Wall St conglomerates can come in a drive up the rent through big purchases and then int'l workers come in and undercut the living wage of middle class ppl, then doesn't that mean there is no sustainable way for the middle class to thrive in most major int'l cities?

This tariff trade war is going to have a catastrophic effect on a lot of ppl. But someone's earning money off of it and getting political capital. Right-wing movements are sweeping across Europe. If we just put the blame of 'stupid Trump voters' we are ignoring the festering anger that feeds isolationism and xenophobia. These things have led us to the point of blowing up our own economy. Voters are not stupid. They know when they are getting squeezed. Dem party, Republican party, Wall Street, somebody needs to show ppl 'this is why your life is better'...if it truly is getting better. Otherwise, a system that leaves 99% of ppl angry is built to self-destruct.