Globalization Advantages Disadvantages

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criticisms that question the profits that are captured. Opponents argue that the expansion of global trade creates unfair exchanges between larger and smaller econo-mies, arguing that developed economies capture significantly more value because of financial leverage. Other commonly raised concerns include damage to the environment, decreased food safety, unethical labor practices in sweatshops, increased consumerism, and the weakening of traditional cultural values.

The primary complication of globalization involves the power imbalance caused by nations having unequal amounts of wealth. When exchanging with developing econo-mies, the financial leverage of multinational corporations or wealthy governments can ensure an imbalanced trade environment. These concerns manifest most commonly in manufacturing, as demonstrated by sweatshops being found having long work hours, minimal government oversight, and extremely low wages. Especially in more egregious examples, outsourcing and international trade are polarizing because wealthier devel-oped players capture disproportionate value and provide minimal value to players with developing economies. An example for bad work conditions was Apple’s partner Fox-conn who runs its factories in China.

Arguments against the increase in interdependent global markets also focus on the envi-ronmental concerns of outsourcing. The drawbacks to increased international trade are extensive, mostly revolving around higher levels of energy consumption, increased air and water pollution via shipping and factory waste, overpopulation, deforestation, and general climate change. The rapid development of industrializing economies and global consumption has resulted in an exponential rise in the depletion of resources and energy, and also the generation of more pollution. Besides the rising number of transport and travelling people also includes a higher risk to spread infectious diseases all over the world in a short time. An example for this risk is the avian influenza H5N1. At the end of 2005 only 17 countries had H5N1 outbreaks. 2007 the virus had already circulated in 60 countries.

In addition to concerns involving the environment and equality, the rise of a homogene-ous consumerist culture is seen as weakening traditional cultures. Through sharing knowledge, customs, technology, products, and services, countries are growing more international in not just business, but also in their tastes and perspectives. It is hypothe-sized that consumerism, where consumption largely exceeds necessity, will continue to accelerate because of expanding global trade and will continue to contribute to a homo-geneous global culture that crowds out traditional cultures.

One of the most significant criticisms of globalization is the increased risk associated with the interdependence of economies. As countries are increasingly depending on each other, an economic collapse in one country can quickly spread to other countries. For example, a downturn in car sales in the UK affects the rest of Europe as most cars bought in the UK are imported from the EU. The Far East crisis of the 1990s was caused by the collapse of just a few Japanese banks.

Most recently, the crash of the US property market created a global crisis in the banking system because banks around the world incurred a fall in the value of their assets and reduced their lending to each other. This provoked a liquidity crisis and helped fuel a severe downturn in the global economy.

Over-specialization, such as being over-reliant on producing a limited range of goods for the global market, is a further risk associated with globalization. A sudden downturn in world demand for one of these products can plunge an economy into a recession. Many developing countries suffer by over-specializing in a limited range of products, such as agriculture and tourism.

3 Conclusion

All in all it can be said that globalization is a process that brought the world positive and negative results. Proponents as well as critics have to accept that the force behind glob-alization cannot be stopped anymore. That is why humanity has to concentrate on im-proving the advantages and on finding solutions to minimize globalization’s negative effects. The bad work conditions in manufacturing factories in developing countries have to be revised. Globalization means also that we are one world. That is what com-panies have to understand this as well. Furthermore bad work conditions bring also bad publicity. That is why every company should be motivated to change these in their fac-tories. PUMA for example established their SAFE-Programme for all the factories that work for them. The environmental pollution should be minimized and the future will hopefully bring new technologies to produce electricity and recycle waste which can be entrenched all over the world. It is also important to remind every country of its indi-vidual culture. A good way to do this are celebrations. Additionally there should be a firm part of culture education in school to raise the children with their culture. The in-terdependence of economies is already existing and as already said at the beginning of the conclusion it cannot be stopped anymore. As consequence cooperation of economies all over the world becomes more important. Problems have to be forecasted and ways have to be found to stop negative developments. If the world is aware of and tries to solve all the problems globalization is a process that makes the world much better. It is already impressive how different nations are interacting with each other today and if we focus on solving problems together and support each other instead of looking for con-troversies perhaps Carlos Santana who said “One day there will be no borders, no boundaries, no flags and no countries and the only passport will be the heart” will be right someday.

References

Boundless 2014a

Boundless: Benefits of Globalization. In: https://www.boundless.com/business/internati onal-business/globalization-in-business/benefits-of-globalization/ 2014.

Boundless 2014b

Boundless: Complications of Globalization. In: https://www.boundless.com/business/ international-business/globalization-in-business/complications-of-globalization/ 2014.

Clinton 2003

Clinton, Bill: A global community: Defining the mission of the 21st century. In: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/06/opinion/06iht-edclinton_ed3_.html. New Haven, Connecticut 2003.

Department of Computer Science and Engineering 2014

Department of Computer Science and Engineering: Globalization.