It is not easy to discuss globalization in extreme terms. , The issue is a complex one so it is in some sense good for some things and bad for others. I argue that it leads to more positive things than negative things. If you look at what globalization means for an American factory whose job has been lost to a manufacturing in China, globalization looks like a bad thing. But the decision was made by the company because there is an obvious financial benefit for the country. Labor prices are cheaper in China, so the company will save on that. Globalization is also good for the consumer, because it means since the product cost less to produce, the company can sell it for less. So, for many consumers, globalization is a good thing. One cannot look at the issue from only our perspective here. I China there is someone who now has a job who did not before, so for an out-of-work factory worker in China, globalization is a good thing. Looked at this way, it seems that more people win from globalization than lose from it.
Panos Mourdoukouta’s wrote an article whose title does a good job of understanding the many tradeoffs involved in globalization: “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Side Of Globalization.” He objective lists positives and negatives regarding the realities for people of living in a global economy. One again, this makes the case that whether or not globalization is good or bad varies depending on what perceptive you are looking at it from.
Mourdoukouta writes “Business can communicate efficiently and effectively with their partners, suppliers, and costumers and manage better their supplies, inventories, and distribution network” (Mourdoukouta, 2011). He offers thecase of the Sony Corporation, that is a global corporation able to vend its products just as easily on Georgia as it does in India. American business able to operate on a global scale, such as Apple, allows for the US to be competitive on a global marketplace, provide jobs overseas, and collect international tax dollars, which benefit the whole country. It is because of globalization that Apple has been able to grow into the sort of company that it is today.
There is no denying the disadvantages and shortcomings of this system. Like all human creations, it is not a perfect system, but it is better than trade restrictions. One danger of globalization is that in a unifiedglobal economy, woes in one part of the world have an effect in other areas of the world. Economic problems spread. Europe recently experienced this with its financial crisis. The tradeoff though is the high degree of competition that a global market encourages. (Mourdoukouta, 2011).
The beginning of the 20th centurywas ten years of much globalization and 5.7 million manufacturing jobs were relocated outside of the US border. (Samuelson, 2012) Robert J. Samuelson asked in his Washington post, “Can globalization survive 2013?” He believes more jobs were lost to China than will remain there, and that eventually globalization will normalize and some jobs will return to us. This flux of jobs represents a very good and capitalistic notion, that to remain relevant in the business world you must remain competitive. One way to do that is to give certain jobs to countries where people are willing to work for less. While US firms anywhere in the world should provide ethical working arrangements for workers, as the illustration earlier showed, globalization is less about factory workers in the US losing jobs, it is about building up third world economic and manufacturing infrastructure. A political writer for the New York Times, Mattias Tesfaye writes, “But a central aspect has been the E.U.'s expansion toward the east that has resulted in mass immigration from the former communist bloc where people are willing to work for salaries that we consider undignified” (Tesfayte, 2013).
Right now trade between countries is as free as ever (Tesfayete, 2013). Technological has eliminated many of the traditional borders preventing trade between countries. With planes, and large ocean liners that can transport goods across vast boundaries. This technological advances also have come along side opened trade routes between countries. Tightening up boarder will work against peace between countries and will fuel injustice. Also, it is impossible to slow or reverse the reality of intercommunication, which allows services such as call service to be outsourced. Likewise, the world cannot turn back the clocks on advances in transpiration technology. So those who oppose globalization are in effect opposing the irreversible reality that has been brought about by the progress of human technology and intellectual growth.
Globalization represents change, and change is not always easy. The transition of good and services from being locally sourced to being internationally sourced has brought about a number of changes for how business operates and how individual citizens make a living. Countries, which have diversified economies that reward innovation, such as most of the West, should therefore embrace globalization and see it as in-line with their fundamental beliefs in freedom. This is not to say that some restrictions should not be passed. Globalization has led to many US firms and companies hiding oversea profits in tax havens and finding legal loopholes to not pay US taxes on their foreign earnings. This is an example of a negative result of globalization. I do agree that things should be done to address such aspects. But as a whole, globalization is a good things and one that should be allowed to progress naturally without governments hindering its progress.
References:
Samuelson, R. J. (n.d.). Can globalization survive 2013? - Washington Post.Featured Articles From The Washington Post. Retrieved July 7, 2013, from http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-30/opinions/36071260_1_production-workers-capital-flows-cost-advantage
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Side Of Globalization - Forbes. (n.d.). Information for the World's Business Leaders - Forbes.com. Retrieved July 7, 2013, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2011/09/10/the-good-the-bad-and-the- ugly-side-of-globalization/
Tesfaye, M. (n.d.). Globalization Has Changed Europe. New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/12/01/europes-identity-crisis/globalization-has-changed-europe
