How depressed could net real western wages be without globalization?

Sir, Samuel Brittan in “Globalization depresses western wages” October 20, discusses a very delicate issue where a wrong answer could lit up a fire of protectionism that would just make things so much worse, on so many fronts, at least in the long run. Mr Brittan puts forward some interesting thoughts on how to transfer some of the gains of globalization to the losers but before doing so we might need to understand better all the other factors that might be affecting how the benefits are currently distributed. For instance, the increased tendency of awarding, through patents and copyrights, so many small, medium and large monopoly rights and that has been running parallel to globalization, could indeed be reducing the net take home for most much more than the competition in the labor market. Also, in the case of the privatization of many public services, it might very well be that some weaknesses in the regulatory agencies have allowed for the capture of private rents to exceed the efficiency savings produced. So, in the name of the worker who for a low salary toils away in poor developing countries, let me ask instead; how depressed could net real western wages be without globalization?

Samuel Brittan globalization wages