I see a lot of commentary these days from liberals regarding the “globalism” boogeyman. I don’t get what’s so bad about countries competing to attract business to themselves. This even happens within a country. For example, in the U.S. Texas or Florida might attract businesses from Connecticut. There have actually been some high-profile wooing from both states toward CT businesses in the past several years. I’ve seen some snark and some grumbling about it, but never the same level of concern that “globalism” brings out.

Perhaps what is most concerning to these folks is that it’s easier for businesses to move than it is for people to move. This is even true within the U.S., though the obstacles for it are fewer. To move countries requires a lot more time, documentation, and money. It’s one thing to take a vacation in Europe for a while – an activity for which U.S. citizens have arguably the easiest of times – but it’s much more difficult to move countries on a permanent or semi-permanent basis.

Maybe the next step in creating a global society is in ensuring freedom of movement as well as freedom of trade. We’ve seen what something like the Schengen Area in Europe can do, though it’s not without its problems since the common border controls increasingly seem not so common, as the emigration of refugees from Syria has shown. If it were easier for people to move in order to work, perhaps this would lessen fears about “globalism.” That said, I imagine that some locals would have a problem with this, such as how in the U.S. some people have a problem with increased emigration from countries like India and Mexico. While there are some legitimate issues brought up with this (since the more liberal emigration policies are too often one-sided), I think it too often leads to xenophobia, such as we’ve seen with comments from Donald Trump supporters and even from the man himself.

However, people generally just want to be part of whatever community they’re in and will do whatever it takes to ensure they can work, play, and live their lives with as little wave making as possible. Just as competition in business generally leads to better products and services, I think competition among people leads to better people. This may sound like a bit of cold analysis but I mean it in the best of ways. I simply think we have nothing to fear from new people moving in, whether it be people from India coming to America or people from America coming to India.

I wouldn’t mind seeing a Schengen-type scheme for North America, including the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, so that’s it’s easier for people to work and live among our three countries but I think it’ll take some time to achieve this.