By Oded Gilad
The global nature of the challenges that we are increasingly facing requires a federal level of government above the nation-states. While the arguments against such a world government can sound scary, a serious inquiry would reveal that each and every one of them is rather unfounded. The huge diversity of the human society, for example, rather than being a recipe for strife and war, as some claim, is much more likely to increase tolerance and cooperation. Since no ethnic or religious or ‘national’ group comes even close to being a majority in the world, the only way for them to come to power would be to form large coalitions that, by their nature, will be very inclusive and diverse, and thereby intrinsically more tolerant.
The same can be shown with regard to the argument that a world government would be corrupted and owned by the super wealthy. In reality, the only reason that the 1% and the global corporations can become so wealthy and powerful is that while they play on the global level, the governments that are supposed to tax and regulate them remain conveniently stuck at the national level, divided and competing with each other, and thereby ineffective.
A federal world government, on the other hand, would finally have the right size to tax and regulate them and to redistribute a portion of their immense wealth for the benefit of the 99% in general and the global poor in particular. This, by itself, would create in the global south ample opportunities for good paying jobs in providing important services to the local communities and in building much needed local infrastructures. This would mean that the people of the global south would no longer have to dream of leaving their beloved families, communities and cultures in order to make a living in the global north. The globalization of government, in other words, would lead to a huge localization of the economy and of society, bringing not only peace and justice to the world, but also much more prosperity.
It is time that we make ourselves at home on this planet. Just as we believe some measure of government is necessary at the domestic level to solve issues between people who are relatively similar to each other, it is all the more necessary at the global level. Our economy is already global, our ecology is surely global, and if you ask anyone who really understands culture they will tell you that our culture is also global. This is why a federal world government is entirely possible and necessary, the key to making our lives much better, safer, and happier.