Globalization

The world that we are living in today is rapidly changing.  As the technology that we use is developing and becoming more advanced, so is the ability for different parts of the world to interact, which leads to the new trend of globalization.  The affects of globalization are varied and far-reaching.  Some view the prospects of globalization as a great way to share ideas with remote parts of the world and learn from one another.  Others see the possibility of expanding economic policies and markets around the world.  Still, others view it as a negative trend that only benefits the nations and communities that are already wealthy while further digging the poor and marginalized into a deeper grave.  Both perspectives have their own solid arguments; however, I believe that the problems with globalization are of much greater weight than the positives. 

            An article posted by Craig Nash attempts to describe the major benefits of globalization.  Nash writes that globalization forces businesses to compete internationally, which results in even lower prices for consumers.  Secondly, “countries move to market sectors that they are better at”.  This means that instead of having the United States manufacture all of their own goods, it is more suitable to leave manufacturing to people in China.  In this way nations will stick to areas that they specialize in and share their talents with the rest of the world.  Lastly, Nash believes that through globalization, “everyone grows more prosperous”.  He cites India and China as two success stories suggesting that globalization helps to raise the standard of living in developing countries. 

            However, two other articles, one written by Steve Schifferes and the other by Ana Maria Trujillo suggest the negative consequences of globalization.  Trujillo’s article deals with the story of a young woman named Melissa Draper who lived and worked in Bolivia.  Draper observed the specifically studied the affects that globalization was having on the indigenous people that she was observing and interacting with.  Draper found that many of these women struggled to keep up with the demands of globalization and that forced them to seek jobs other than ones that they were accustomed to, such as working in a cocoa field.  The article by Schifferes seeks to understand the deeper ethical problems that have arisen due to globalization.  According to a report that is often quoted in the article “there are deep-seated and persistent imbalances in the current workings of the world economy, which are ethically unacceptable and politically unsustainable”.  According to the article, globalization tends to further marginalize the already marginalized.  Some statistics included in the article demonstrate this point even further.  “Income per person in the world's 20 poorest countries has barely changed in the last 40 years, from $212 in 1960-62 to $267 in 2000-02, while income in the richest 20 nations has tripled, from $11,417 to $32,339”.  Therefore, it is clear that globalization is not affecting all nations equally.  In fact, it is affecting the already rich and powerful countries while leaving the under-developed nations behind in their dust. 

            I believe that there is a moral problem with the way that globalization is currently being approached.  I believe that globalization is shifting from globalization to Westernization, which tends to benefit the United States mostly.  The way the globalization is viewed today poses a serious threat to many poor nations around the world.  It seems to be a system in which the more powerful, wealthy nations exploit the smaller developing nations of their resources and leaves these nations only further behind the rest of the world than where they originally started.  This greedy approach has the potential to not only further entrap nations in poverty, but also strip them of the culture that they so greatly cherish.  The current views towards globalization need to be seriously reevaluated.