>Globalization and free trade are dead because most of the promised benefits for the west failed to materialize. Your statement about the promised benefits fai

>Globalization and free trade are dead because most of the promised benefits for the west failed to materialize. Your statement about the promised benefits failing to materialize is spot on, but this not the reason globalization is dead. Globalization is dead because the United States has stopped patrolling shipping routes with US warships and has, in general, lacked a foreign policy and interest in developing one. The two might be linked, but just barely —- I suspect that one too many generations of mothers and fathers saw their children killed, maimed, or traumatized by senseless military misadventures, thus the appetite for these excursions remains low. Coupled with the fact that the US is aging —- fast —- and has fewer children to spare, the great unwinding is indeed before us. But I doubt, sincerely, that politically or spirituality the voting electorate had any realization of the sort you called out. That is, no contingency of American voters woke up to say, “Yes I can get a flat screen TV for $120, but what’s the real cost?”