LOS ANGELES -- Americans watching events play out in Florida since Nov. 7 may feel a surreal sense of powerlessness; their president is being chosen by a handful of Palm Beach residents, it seems. In short, Americans have now gotten a taste of the way the rest of the world feels with each presidential election. Citizens of Asia, Europe, Africa and South America wait for election news to trickle down to us every four years, knowing that although we have no voice in his selection, the U.S. president will wield more power over us than many of our own elected officials.
Consider, for example, the case of Japan during the last few years. In the name of stabilizing the economy, the Clinton administration successfully pressured Japan to build wasteful public works. These Keynesian measures, implemented in a time that calls for anything but Keynesian measures, have saddled every newborn Japanese baby with $50,000 in debt, just to pay back government bonds. One result: Investment, not just from Japan but from the rest of the world, trickles into the United States before going to other markets, including investors' home countries.
I write this not to criticize the U.S.; it is only taking advantage of its role as a unique military and economic power, as well as the premier power in the "invisible continent" of cybernetically-powered finance. But the U.S. is also a democracy, grounded in the belief that human beings are fundamentally equal in their political status, no matter what their economic and sovereign status might be.