Bombardier and Globalization
Externalizing Costs at the Expense of Governments and Democracies

Nipawin - Tuesday, July 10, 2001 - by: Mario deSantis

$2.6-billion
deal

We have the news that Canada's Bombardier has landed a $2.6-billion deal to sell seventy-five of its popular regional jets to Northwest Airlines. The securing of this deal has been accomplished with the intervention of the Canadian government which has provided Norwest Airlines with at least a $1.2 billion loan.

 

 

the way
to do

Bombardier was in competition with Embraer SA of Brazil and both transnationals provided bids supported by governmental loans. This is the way to do business today in the one world wide global market, that is transnationals collude with governments to secure big business deals and in so doing these transnationals externalize their costs at the expense of governments.

 

 

full
employment

This is a far cry from the time when President Franklin Roosevelt applied the Keynesian economic theory of governmental deficit spending to untap the unused economic resources of the United States and provide full employment.

 

 

not
selectively

There is really no general theory of economics beyond our understanding that business must be conducted democratically on behalf of the people at large and not selectively on behalf of transnational corporations.

 

 

downsize

Today, Globalization is distorting our democracies as governments get bigger to assist their transnational corporations while internally both governments and transnationals downsize their people for the sake of global economic efficiency.

 

 

this is
a loan

To understand the intrinsic double talking of our political and business leaders I quote Canada's International Trade minister Pierre Pettigrew "this is a loan, Bombardier will not get a cheque, will not get a thing."
 
   
  Bombardier beats Embraer for $2.6-billion deal with Northwest Airlines, CBC Canada July 9, 2001 http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/07/09/bombardier_010709