In today’s complex and often turbulent economic environment, global firms have sought greater profits by moving labor to less economically developed countries that need jobs but have poor health and safety regulations for workers. The continuous outsourcing of many U.S. jobs and the breakdown of global economic borders accompanied this transformation. Bolstered by the passage of GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) in 1947, the signing of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) in 1994, and the formation of the WTO (World Trade Organization, which succeeded GATT in 1995), global cooperation fostered transnational media corporations and business deals across international terrain.

But in many cases this global expansion by U.S. companies ran counter to America’s early-twentieth-century vision of itself. Henry Ford, for example, followed his wife’s suggestion to lower prices so workers could afford Ford cars. In many countries today, however, most workers cannot even afford the stereo equipment and TV sets they are making primarily for U.S. and European markets.