Public Media from Michigan State University

Michigan scholar explores destructive impacts of globalization

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Courtesy Rutgers University Press

Millions of Americans have serious doubts about globalization.

Jeffery Rothstein is a Michigan scholar whose new book “When Good Jobs Go Bad,” explores the declining job quality that he says is also a result of globalization.  

After several decades of globalization, American critics of the phenomenon have become a force to be reckoned with.  They says globalization's economic and social benefits have been oversold.  

They dismiss the mantra that free trade, expanded immigration and technological progress are unquestionably good.  They point to the a continuing tide of U.S. auto manufacturing facilities in Mexico as the prime example.     

The 2016 presidential election is the setting for a lot of the criticism, notably from Republican front runner Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders.

Jeff Rothstein is a professor of sociology at Grand Valley State University in Allendale.  He's the author of the recently released book “When Good Jobs Go Bad: Globalization, De-unionization, and Declining Job Quality in the North American Auto Industry.”

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