Free Essay: Individual Themed Essay (ITE)

Individual Themed Essay (ITE)

Introduction

Over the years, there has been interdependence and interconnection of states and economies.

Various systems like education, culture and economy have been at the center of globalization around the world. Globalization breeds universal systems and products, which customers consume regardless of their culture and geographical locations. While there have been debates on the effects of globalization, economists largely support this concept because of its massive advantages. In most instances, they emphasize on the positive side of embracing globalization and dismiss its limitations (Hitt, Hoskisson and Kim 1997, p. 780). While this is the case, globalization poses serious threats as it does not benefit humanity but seeks to empower certain individuals.

Many people support globalization in the sense that it enables some countries own goods and services, which they never had before. Because of interdependence, economists observe that globalization creates room for developed economies to empower weaker ones. Whilst this is the case, human beings are likely to suffer in the end. Notably, many supporters of globalization focus on individual success as opposed to long-term benefits for everybody (Portes, Guarnizo and Landolt 1999, p. 219). Critically, resources channeled in globalization efforts end up benefiting specific individuals. In this research paper, we shall detail some of the ways in which globalization is beneficial individuals and not humanity. The researcher looks at examples, which prove that globalization has negative consequences to humanity.

Discussion

Many people believe that globalization is a key economic driver. Proponents argue that businesses have grown internationally since countries can now access goods and services, which they never had before. Importantly, globalization has bettered people’s living standards by boosting productivity (Levinson and Taylor 2008, p. 242). As a result, the world has experienced ever-increasing population growth. Moreover, developed countries have used their technological advantage to expand businesses and invest in other nations. Because of this, poor people in underdeveloped countries constantly hunger for wealth. Few people who have the ability embrace foreign products and services as the needs of the poor escalate (Portes, Guarnizo and Landolt 1999, p. 219). Consequently, humanity is suffering because of what the world perceives to be helpful.

Another aspect is unemployment, which is rampart in developing countries because of industrial revolution. Since more people depend on industrial employment, the impact of collapse or poor performance of these industries is always huge. Additionally, globalization rides on the concept of having less manpower drive the economy by producing goods and services. This offers evidence why developing economies embrace technology with the aim of increasing industrial production. This leads to unemployment as industries turn to foreign technology, which thrive of high production against less manpower (Wai 2002, p. 150). In the end, majority suffer dire consequences while a few business owners enjoy huge profit margins. This proves the fact that globalization does not favor the world’s majority populace. On the same note, technology further lowers the cost of production of some products, making them cheaper than what other countries offer. This scenario favors importation over exportation, thus leading to the collapse of local industries and ultimate unemployment.

Globalization also promotes the existence of a global village where economies have more similarities than differences, including culture and social issues. This has however worked against poor nations, which lack the capacity to reciprocate what developed economies do. To achieve this influence, developed countries produce and exports products to developing economies, including cloths, movies and tech devices. The importing country is always in danger as its people face the risk of forgetting their social order and identity. This is because every cultural group has distinct and original way of life, which the rest of the world ought to preserve. Because of the financial influence of developed countries, most cultural beliefs have collapsed, as the locals enjoy imported goods and services. If the current trends are anything to go by, then the world’s small tribes risk extinction (Hitt, Hoskisson and Kim 1997, p. 782).

On the other hand, globalization is causing storms among environmentalists. With continuous exploitation of natural resources, which are nonrenewable, the world is being exposed to lethal environmental effects. Countries, which embrace more globalization, are likely to face serious environmental effects and vice versa. With the ever-increasing demand for energy, exploitation of coal from all over the world remains rife. The more the world burns coal, the more carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere, leading to global warming, which is a leading environmental scourge worldwide. The effects of global warming are widespread, with economies beginning to spend huge monies to address its hazardous effects (Tverberg 2013, p. 1).

According to some reports, a small percentage of the word’s wealthy people control natural resources. These minorities have the capacity to control and exploit resources and export them to other economies with a lot of ease. Moreover, developed countries account for the highest percentage of environmental pollution. As the world grapples with effects of pollution, wealthy economies dump hazardous wastes in developing countries thus escalating the problem. Because of global free trade, leading world companies are opting to do business with economies that have inefficient and non-stringent policies to take advantage. They also prefer countries with available cheap labor, which denotes their intention to exploit the poor (Tverberg 2013, p. 1). Instead of helping these nations to better the lives of their people, the results favor only one side: the developed friend.

Poor countries continue surviving at the mercies of the developed economies. As mentioned above, industrialized countries expand their businesses in economies with cheap and available labor, weak pollution laws, cheap materials, and meager employee benefits. Because of this, production operations in OECD countries crumble with high cost. When this happens, multinationals from developed countries shift their operations to developing countries, resulting into massive loss of jobs in developed countries. Many of this countries target China, leading to adverse effects in OECD countries. In the end, the expected benefits of globalization are cancelled by the demerits on the other end, as it benefits few individuals (Wallerstein 2000, p. 250).

It therefore follows that globalization has chiefly contributed to interdependence of economies. In some cases, countries opt to import cheap products from developed economies instead of investing in local production plants since it would be pricey. This discourages local industrialization even though it succeeds with all factors constant (Saggi 2002, p. 191). In case of any disruption, affected countries are likely to experience far-reaching effects. Because of this association, other countries in the chain are likely to feel the impact of one of the partners collapsing or experiencing challenges. This can be clearly seen from the effects of the 2008 Economic Crisis, which left US, European Countries and Japan struggling to recover from the meltdown (Saggi 2002, p. 191). Notably, almost every world economy has experienced these effects because of economic interdependence caused by globalization.

Conclusion

In summary, globalization benefits a few individuals and not humanity even though proponents argue that free trade has largely contributed to global economic growth. This research concludes that large corporations in developed countries use this opportunity to exploit and ‘rape’ developing economies their resources. They not only create employment in these countries but also equally contribute to massive unemployment in other parts. By taking advantage of weak legal policies in some nations, these countries also lead to lethal and massive environmental pollution. Lastly, multinationals investing in developing countries do not benefit the host economies with their profits as they repatriate them home. Thus, globalization is a means of benefiting a few individuals at the expense of humanity.

References

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Levinson, A. & Taylor, S. 2008. “Unmasking the Pollution Haven Effect”. International

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Portes, A., Guarnizo, E. & Landolt, P. 1999. ‘The study of transnationalism: Pitfalls and promise

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Saggi, K. 2002. “Trade, Foreign Direct Investment, and International Technology Transfer: A

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Tverberg, G. 2013. Twelve Reasons Why Globalization is a Huge Problem. Our Finite World.

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58

Wallerstein, I. 2000. ‘Globalization or the age of transition?’ International Sociology, 15 (2),

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