BLACK OR WHITE?

Nowadays, it is almost impossible to define if something is good or bad. Very often from one point of view it is a positive thing, but from another it has some disadvantages. (And here comes my favorite economic phrase) 'It depends.' Knowing that, I would like to consider who GENERALLY is the winner and who is the loser of globalization.

The best thing to do while answering this question is dividing it into three dimensions: a citizen, a country and the environment- three different points of view.

A CITIZEN:

An average citizen benefits from globalization in terms of: communication possibilities (social networks, international calls etc.), travel and education (more information about other countries, open borders etc.) and trade (greater choice, lower prices of products and better quality of goods and services).

‘Opening up to international trade has helped many countries grow

far more quickly than they would otherwise have done … Because

of globalization, many people in the world now live longer than

before and their standard of living is far better’

— Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and its Discontents, 2002

On the other hand, globalization can have a bad impact on local businesses. Small companies would suffer because of greater competition and it could cause them to lose clients and, consequently, money. What is more, there is a possibility for a person to have problems in finding a job if there are many cheap workers from other countries. Another disadvantage of globalization is the risk of people losing their originality and individuality and forgetting about their traditions and culture. The fashion and trends have a huge impact on people’s behavior and decisions. The next (a little bit extreme) example, is the risk of more diseases spreading among many countries which would be caused by many people traveling.

A COUNTRY:

For a developed country globalization would obviously have more advantages than for a developing one. First of all, it would lead to higher rates of exports and imports because of the possibility of the goods’ and services’ international movement. It could also cause breaking of the domestic monopolies and improving competition. It could also help developing countries by the giving them the access to foreign capital.

Developing countries which have increased their trade shares of

GDP since 1980 have grown almost four times as fast as those

which have not.

— World Bank, Globalization, Growth and Poverty 2002

Unfortunately, globalization has many disadvantages. It is important to know that rich countries usually trade with other rich ones, avoiding developing and poor areas. That would cause even a bigger gap between them. The same problem could arise within a country. People with high salaries would earn even more money while these with lower income would not be able to change their situation. The other thing is the labor drain. Well-educated people from less-developed countries would emigrate to richer ones in order to get more money. Obviously, that would be very beneficial for the second one with a loss for the first (and no chance for further development).

THE ENVIRONMENT:

What is the connection between globalization and the environment? Even if the development of technology and international organization would be able to protect our planet from pollution and other problems in some ways, the Earth seems to be the biggest loser of this process. It’s mainly because of the increase of transport of goods, services and people. The rise in people’s demand on all kind of products would cause further environmental degradation, because of the huge amounts of waste.

In my opinion globalization has both advantages and disadvantages for everybody. This time the outcome of this process depends fully on US and OUR BEHAVIOUR. We have to think about the future and do as much as possible to improve our lives without harming others. I’m being optimistic!

That’s what I think.

MANU