It is the Economy, Stupid!

Lately, problems about Syria seem to have monopolized our attention.

Instead of speculation and sectarian gambling in the MidEast, let me distract you towards some bread and butter issues, my dear readers…

Recently, one of the largest business associations in Turkey called MUSIAD had its annual convention in Istanbul.

Popularly, MUSIAD is known as the ‘Muslim’ Industrialists & Businessmen Association in Turkey, even though the ‘M’ in their acronym stands for ‘Independent’ in Turkish.

The Uber-Prime Minister Erdogan gave a speech at the MUSIAD Convention. The highlight of his speech:

Lamentably low commercial ties among the world's Muslims.

According to the Turkish Prime Minister, the Muslims in the world should wake up and realize that they form a whooping 22% of the world population! Subsequently, they should circle their wagons and start buying and selling from each other.

Now, isn’t that grand? How come no one came up with this brilliant idea until Tayyip-the-Nuevo-Leader-of-World-Muslims uttered it?

After the Prime Minister’s speech calling for the “Muslims of the World, Unite!” the head of MUSIAD obviously got the message.

In his speech, MUSIAD President Olpak happily announced that the trade volume of Turkey with the European Union (yep, the one Turkey is a candidate to join since 1999) was going down.

No doubt with the help of God Almighty, the trade volume of Turkey with the Middle East and other Muslim countries in Asia and Africa was on the rise!

The Head of MUSIAD is not cooking up these numbers. The import-export trends in recent years clearly show that Turkish economy is gradually decoupling from Europe. For the first time last year, the trade volume with the EU fell below 50%. Russia, Asia and MENA countries are inching their way up, gradually becoming more important trade partners for Turkey.

Should we worry about this? 

Yes...Here is why:

We have a saying in Turkey: Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.

This principle is applicable to imports and exports: Tell me who your export partners are, and I’ll tell you how advanced your economy is. 

When Turkey exports to Europe, or to any other advanced economy (Australia, Canada, etc), that means those Turkish products that reach these markets, meet higher standards. Almost always the EU has higher consumer, environmental, and quality standards than say India, China, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan.

Hence, when Turkish economy performs in order to meet the EU standards, it is compelled to improve itself. The target market inevitably creates a progressive dynamic for the Turkish economy.

Let’s look at our fellow Muslims, who after all form 22% of the world population and grow more rapidly than anyone else.

Last time I checked, none of the majority Muslim countries had established advanced industrial economies, including the oil-rich, taxis-are-all-Mercedes city-states of the Gulf.

Worse, many of them, such as Yemen, are at the bottom of the Human Development Index. This means, their populations are poorer, less educated and live shorter. The state of women in these countries is not what you’d call decent.

Here is an example of what economic delinking from the West and cozying up to our fellow Muslims would look like in practice:

Instead of producing TV screens, electronic components, car parts, sophisticated pharmaceuticals, and organic fruit for Germany, France or Italy, Turkish economy would produce electric blankets, aspirin, carpets and furniture for Libya, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria (assuming things there calm down soon).

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that the products aimed for the EU markets have higher technology components to them. Consequently, they have higher profit margins, greater potentials for R & D, innovation and advancement. You can be only so sophisticated and innovative, while making carpets and furniture.

This is only one problem about steering Turkish economy away from advanced economies, towards lesser-developed ones.

Here are two more:

What would the Prime-Minister & Co-Chair of Dialogue Among Civilizations think, if the US President called for solidarity among the Christian economies in the world??

Imagine Obama saying: “My fellow Christians. Today, let’s forget our differences as Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox. We are more than 2 billion people. Let us combine our economic forces into a single global Christian economic community!”

Sounds weird, does’t it.  

According to the Pew Research Center, 2.18 billion Christians make up almost 1/3 of world population. That’s a pretty sizable market. But you never hear any sensible political leader calling for economic cooperation based on religion.

Even Hugo Chavez has more common sense. Across Latin America, which shares common Iberian and Catholic ties, Chavez advocates unity based on Bolivarianism and socialism, that is, ideology not religion.

Why?

Because, this is the 21^st Century! Hello??? It is discriminatory and wrong to advocate your cause -let alone call for economic integration- based on religion.  

Finally, there is the World Trade Organization.

WTO is a free trade organization among nations. It guarantees that the members play according to the logic of free trade, which means being rational actors.

As such, WTO prevents favoritism and discrimination among countries in their economic affairs. In short, it tells that if you’re a member, you cannot discriminate the Australians because of their funny accents, nor can you favor the Italians, oh because they’re so hot! :))

Back to serious business:

Turkey signed the treaty and became a member of WTO in 1995.

Erdogan’s suggestion of favoring Muslim countries in foreign trade is ultimately a violation of the treaty obligations that Turkey signed onto. As the head of executive, and an advocate of market economy, he should know better. 

Below is an excerpt is from the WTO mission statement.

“Through these agreements, WTO members operate a non-discriminatory trading system that spells out their rights and their obligations. Each country receives guarantees that its exports will be treated fairly and consistently in other countries’ markets. Each promises to do the same for imports into its own market.”

I'm not suggesting we should turn our backs to any economy that is worse off than Turkey. 

But this shouldn't come at the expense of economic rationality, and undermine long-term development capacity of the country. Nor should primordial ties like religion, ethnicity or race be the basis of economic solidarity. 

Wishing you all rational and non-discriminatory economic decisions,

The bread & butter advocate, Academic Mommy

Disneyland, Family Fun, and the Latest Stage of Advanced Capitalism

During the Spring Break, we took our son to Disneyland in California. It was my first visit, as well as his. We were equally thrilled by the experience.

I am not a huge fan of artificial environments created for mass entertainment. Years ago when I first visited Las Vegas, the place utterly depressed me.

Maybe all the training towards a PhD makes us academics ill-disposed to the idea of popular entertainment. It’s as if the PhD diploma condemns us to watching boring artsy movies and pretending to get the deep dark meaning behind the strawberry scene… anyways, this entry is not about anti-intellectualism…

When in Vegas, I remember finding the place extremely tacky and fake. The air of over-the-top commodification bothered me so much!... It seemed like anything and everything was for sale. Especially the human beings! The amount of in-you-face human flesh became so unbearable for me that in order to tolerate those few days in Vegas, I decide to have a split personality disorder. Here is how it worked:

I imagined myself as an anthropologist doing fieldwork amongst this “weird” clan that was discovered in the deep Nevada desert. They slept during the day, stayed up all night. They lured and tricked the weaker members of their community into loosing their assets in labyrinths called the “casinos”. They liked to display bodies of the good-looking members of their clan in shows called “Crazy Horse”. They also liked to make pathetic models of the objects they liked from the civilized world, like the Eiffel Tower, Venice canals and the pyramids of Egypt. It felt like an extended nightmare with lots of glittery lights, dancing fountains and bouncing boobies…

Because of the rather bad taste on my palate from the Vegas trip, I was hesitant to go to the Disneyland, a.k.a “the happiest place on earth!” However, as guilty liberal parents, we didn’t want to deprive our only son of this experience, because of our moral and intellectual reservations. So, we went. And I’m glad we did!

Aside from spending some wonderful 10 hours, this visit churned the little political economist in me!

The moment we approached the parking lot, we were shepherded by a small army of “crew members”. These employees were all dressed up in the cutest uniforms. They would handle the crowds in the most efficient way, without making them feel rushed at all.

I swear thousands would pass through the main gates at every few minutes, yet the park displayed no signs of overcrowding, chaos or disrepair. Everything looked in great shape, despite the fact that the park was opened in 1955! The conditions and safety measures all around seemed impeccable!

I remember in Ankara, we took our son to a public recreational area in Golbasi once.  He still has a scar on his forehead from the playground there.

I imagine any place in the world with this many children and their overbearing parents would easily turn into a “Lord of the Flies” scene. But not in Disneyland!

The pricey ticket gives you access to all the rides, but the lines are long. People do wait their turns in a patient and orderly manner. Again, the “crew” works magic when it comes to shepherding the crowds in and out of the rides.

And the rides: They are amazing! The first one we went was “It’s a Small World” in the Mickey’s Toontown. It had little dolls from all around the world dressed in the most stereotypical fashion (i.e. geishas from Japan, belly dancers from some magic Arab lands, tulip holding, clog wearing dolls from Holland, etc…). Not much creativity, one might say. But, as we were gliding on a small sandal from one scene to the next, these dancing little dolls just mesmerized us.

I was amazed by the amount of craftsmanship needed to built and program these little dolls to dance and sing in such harmony. Contrary to Vegas, this constructed space of entertainment felt so real! And this sense of a “magic reality” followed us everywhere. It felt as if we were inside a three dimensional cartoon!

So, where is political economy in this?

If you’ve read thus far, bear with me a bit more. Here it comes:

When Disneyland opened in 1955, it had about 1 million visitors. Last year, it had almost 16 million! Tickets are around $80 a piece.  That makes $1.28 billion in revenues just from the entrance fees! Aside from that, you spend quite a bit of money inside on food, drinks, silly hats and other memorabilia.  We spent about $150.

I could not find the numbers but it must take armies of carpenters, puppet makers, gardeners, genitors, mechanics, engineers and maintenance people to keep that place up and running. From 8 am till midnight!

Seeing Disneyland consolidated my opinions about the dominance of the US in service sector. Essentially, Disneyland is all about selling a fictitious reality, a dream. And 16 million visitors each year are willing to pay for it!

California itself is the capital of this huge service sector. It is also the heart of the global entertainment sector. The studios –big and small- the artists –big and small- are the bastions of this empire. Tourism is completely catering towards the entertainment industry, feeding into the magical image of California and the America it creates.

After seeing Disneyland and California, I thought the US need not worry about the demise of its manufacturing sector. Let the Mexicans build the cars and the refrigerators. The Americans would do just fine, by creating magical realities and marketing it across the world.

Unfortunately, all this glitter of the service sector hides a rather dark side. For every actor or producer that makes millions and lives in giant mansions, there are tens of thousands of low-wage stagehands, stunts, waitresses and cleaners that earn pitiful wages with little or no benefits.

Lucky me, I just came across some data that back up my observations. According to OECD statistics, the US had the highest share of low-wage jobs among advanced economies.

This is not surprising, given the increasing predominance of the service sector in the US and its extremely inequitable wage structure. There is an astronomically wide gap between the leading artists and the stagehands. Similarly in banking, finance and insurance sectors, the wage gaps between the top and bottom are outrageous. Whereas in the manufacturing sector, the gap between engineers or administrators and the shop-floor workers had never been that wide.

Moral of this story: Take you kid to Disneyland, if you have the chance. It is a worthy experience, and the happiness and gratitude in your child’s eyes is priceless.

However, keep an eye on the grinding wheels of the service sector as well. Your happiness comes at the expense armies of low-wage workers.

Hopefully, we will be lucky enough to see another Great Transformation and labor mobilization in our lifetimes, like the early decades of Industrial Revolution. Similar to the 8-hour workdays and the child labor bans of the olden times, we need a new set of labor laws. These should provide a fair distribution of wealth that is generated by this new, post-modern economic sector.

The service sector might be the new locomotive of national economies, but it should take care of its constitutive components in a just, fair and equitable manner.

Wishing you all fun and pleasant lives as in Disney cartoons,

The California-enamored Academic Mommy