Some like to think that poor countries are simply behind us on some capitalist prosperity trajectory, with welfare as an optional extra or ultimate prize. Yet our history was bloody and violent, and why would we want that?
Why make the World’s poor fight for the same rights that our ancestors desperately needed to protect their safety and secure their freedoms? We now take those rights for granted, from factory conditions to the franchise, yet they seem an impossible dream for countless millions whose work contributes to our well-being.
Moreover, their challenge is now far greater than ours ever was. We could storm the Bastille, metaphorically or literally, and seize power. Now, global institutions and capital mobility mean that much of the power is located outside the country.
When people have rights, when they can replace their governments and join a trade union, they tend to be happier and richer but also more expensive to employ. Pitting them against an un-unionised, disenfranchised, oppressed workforce rewards the tyrants and entrenches their power, so both populations lose out. Captive workers would benefit from any shift to domestic demand when tyrants lose their export markets.
Why give our money to dictators when we can help a struggling democracy that could do with the work?
The despots will be rankled, but who will they sell to other than the world’s democracies and their own populations? The scope for dictators to replace our demand among themselves is very limited – China aside, the combined GDP of Russia, Iran, Myanmar and North Korea is less than France. So despots will have to develop domestic demand to replace lost export markets, which will benefit their captive populations.