[

[/quote]
'd argue it suggests that thanks to globalisation, the costs of basic goods has fallen and quality of life has risen as people have more disposable income to spend on services and transport.{quote}


It's recently been revealed that a shockingly high proportion of the population is morbidly obese, even amongst children, obesity is a real problem. Much of this is the result of whole families paying too little attention to the quality of food they consume, and rather too much attention to the flat screen telly.

The expensive smartphones they spent hours hunched over only increases the detrimental effect on their well being.

"Quality of life risen"??…...I don't think so

I live in the West Midlands and always try to buy British when I buy a car as I would prefer to keep a British worker in a job than a German or French one. My Birmingham made Jaguar is every bit as good as the equivalent German models from Audi BMW and Mercedes. No doubt there are Germans in Munich driving Jaguars who could be driving BMWs. Is this not an example of pointless trade. Everyone in Britain an Germany could buy a perfectly good car made locally rather than import one from another country.

You've highlighted what I've felt for some time.....basically we are all going to have to become more self-sufficient even if it means a more frugal lifestyle. Some realise this, the smart ones are turning to growing their own food, some villages have formed "food co-operatives"....only small measures, but as the saying goes..."Even the longest journey starts with a single step".

For years folk have been living beyond their means, thanks to cheap credit. A bit like those middle-aged folk retiring to Spain, thinking the days of cheap housing, cheap wine and endless sunshine will last forever. Now reality is dawning, thanks partly to the fall in value of the pound, and some are looking to return home.

Even without the issue of Brexit, leaner times are coming, too many nations in debt, rising political tensions. Perhaps globalization has had its day and greater reliance on small local businesses is the future.....You don't need to drive a BMW to enjoy life, you just get higher garage bills.

It always amuses me when people think that globalisation is a modern thing. Globalisation has been going on before we even realised that the Earth was a globe. For instance, as far back as the Bronze Age, Cornish tin was exported to Europe where it was made into bronze artefacts that were traded back to the British. But of course it really got going during the age of the great empires.

An example of that would be cotton. In the 19th century, we imported cotton from India, spun, wove and made it into garments in Lancashire and then exported those back to India to be sold at a price that no local Indian craftsman could match. People starved because of it, but now the boot is on the other foot we complain about unfair competition from abroad.

If our productivity is too low then the work will move somewhere else. This has always been the case and will always be the case until we achieve the quasi-mythical "post-scarcity economy".

Human nature being what it is I can just imagine all the Bronze Age folks sitting around complaining about how that meddling Hammurabi's "Code of Hammurabi" is such an imposition to follow and how everything was better in the Stone Age.

When did humanity have its Golden Age? Is it in the past, or does it still lie ahead of us?