A Short Introduction to World Politics (Meacham)

Why Should Americans Study World Politics?

1. It can kill you. That’s why you have to take your shoes off at the airport – world politics could hijack or blow up your plane. Or you could be at your desk minding your own business in the World Trade Center on 9/11 when two planes hit the buildings. Or you could be at a party in San Bernardino or a night club in Orlando when Internet-inspired crazies come in and start shooting. Or you could be walking down a sidewalk when an Islamic State wannabe drives a truck into the crowd. Active duty military, reservists and members of the National Guard are still going to Afghanistan and Iraq, where roadside bombs, car bombs, suicide bombs, shootings and other attacks have killed thousands of U.S. soldiers and marines and wounded many more.

2. It costs you money. Even if you don’t get directly involved in a war, you help pay for it with your taxes. The military consumes over $700 Billion a year, 20% of our national budget. The Department of Homeland Security spends another $38 billion.

3. It affects your job. You could lose your job if the company moves it to China, India or Mexico. Several million jobs moved overseas in recent years as companies reduced or closed their U.S. plants and offices. On the other hand, you could get a raise if your company makes successful exports. Hollywood and U.S. farmers could not survive without their exports. Seattle depends on Boeing, which is the largest exporter in the U.S. Many of the big corporations in the Fortune 500 make more than half their sales overseas. They are hiring, but not in the U.S.

4. It affects your shopping. When we buy Chinese-made cell phones or Mexican-made jeans, we save money. When we buy strawberries in the winter, they didn’t come from the U.S. We depend on cheap oil imports to fuel our SUVs. Most of the clothing, shoes, video recorders and TVs sold in the U.S. are made overseas. People love to buy cheap imports, even as they complain about jobs moving overseas.

5. It affects your health. In 2016, all branches of Genki Sushi in Hawaii were closed after hundreds of people caught Hepatitis from raw scallops imported from the Philippines. (An estimated 15 percent of the U.S. food supply is imported, including 50% of fresh fruits, 20% of fresh vegetables and 80% of seafood, and only 5% of imported food is inspected.) Meanwhile, pollution respects no man-made boundaries. Dust from the Gobi Desert becomes heavily polluted as it blows across China. Then it blows across the Pacific to land on snow in the Rocky Mountains, contaminating American water. Twenty-five percent of the smog in L.A. comes from China and five percent of the smog in Honolulu comes from L.A. Acid rain from the American Midwest and Germany destroys forests in Canada and Scandinavia. Smoke from huge forest fires in Indonesia spreads all over Southeast Asia.