 23rd July 07, Chris Giles, Financial Times A popular backlash against globalisation and the leaders of the world's largest companies is sweeping all rich countries, an FT/Harris poll today shows. The British have the least admiration of any national group for the leaders of their country's largest companies, and a large majority believes the government should impose a pay cap on the heads of companies to limit their rewards. Large majorities of people in the US and across Europe want higher taxation for the rich to counter a widespread belief that rewards are unjustified.
Believing that globalisation is an overwhelmingly negative force, citizens of rich countries are looking to government to cushion the blows they perceive have come from the liberalisation of their economies to trade with emerging countries. Those polled in the UK, France, the US and Spain were about three times more likely to say globalisation was having a negative rather than a positive effect on their countries. The majority against globalisation was smaller in Germany, with its large export base. Corporate leaders fared little better with only 5 per cent or fewer people in the US and all large European economies, except Italy, saying they had a great deal of admiration for those who run large companies. In the UK, nearly 80 per cent of those polled thought corporate executives earned too much,60 per cent said they should be taxed more and the same proportion thought the government should limit their pay directly. In response to fears of globalisation and rising inequality, the public in all six rich countries surveyed wanted their governments to increase taxation on those with the highest incomes. Europeans overwhelmingly support the principle of free competition within the EU, contrary to Nicolas Sarkozy's wishes at the recent European summit, but in France, Germany and Spain the populations want their political leaders to play a larger role in managing their economies. The depth of anti-globalisation feeling in the FT/Harris online poll, which surveyed more than 1,000 people in each of the six countries, will dismay policymakers and corporate executives. Their view that opening economies to freer trade is beneficial to poor and rich countries alike is not shared by the citizens of rich countries. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007 Link to original source
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