I admit I'm wondering if your comment is sarcastic or real, since globalism is antithetical to conservatism.

Since a global minimum wage is not only politically impossible, but economically ludicrous, maybe you're being sarcastic. The cost of living varies so radically around the world that the very concept of a global standard wage is meaningless.

But still, you're right that in a globalised world, local solutions won't cut it.

A global solution that would make a difference is a global tax on wealth, as advocated by Thomas Piketty in "Capital in the 21st Century". Such a tax would reverse the effects of several decades of conservative economic policies that tilted the playing field toward the accumulation of wealth in the top 0.1% at the expense of everybody else. There would be two prongs to the tax: A yearly tax on assets above a certain threshold; and reinstating the estate taxes that conservatives have so gleefully destroyed.

Yep, I blame conservative economic policies for the fix we're in--the destruction of the middle class and the possibility of upward mobility, and the beginnings of a new aristocracy. Especially the latter: Eliminate or cut the estate tax, and you encourage formation of dynastic wealth, upon which aristocracy is founded. As for the former problems, you weaken the middle class when you attack unions, workplace regulation, fair wage laws, and product regulation. Nothing about our present problems should really come as a surprise--they're the result of deliberate policy choices over the last four decades.

But you've got one thing right, anyway, Rob, the solution won't come from any one country. America doesn't have the leverage and credibility any more to drive global reform, either a global minimum wage or a global wealth tax. The solutions will have to come from somewhere else.