The benefits of globalization outweigh its cost

The term “globalization” is defined as “growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services, free international capital flows, and more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology. All definitions appear to agree that globalization has economic, political, cultural, and technological aspects that may be closely intertwined” by the International Monetary Fund . “Benefits” is defined as “advantage or profit” and “cost” is defined as the “effort or loss necessary to achieve something” by the Oxford dictionary of Current English.

We agree to a large extent to the statement, “The benefits of globalization outweigh its cost.” Even though there are some disadvantages in the process of globalization, but the benefits that the world receive far outweighs the costs of it. We have to look at the bigger picture to see that globalization has accelerated the advancement of the world and brought us lots of advantages, and its role will continue to be important in the future evolution of the world. We will examine this in four aspects, economically, environmentally, socially and politically.

Firstly, globalization has brought about great leap forward in the economy. The world becomes interconnected and a global market is opened, also spurring competition at the same time. This is a great opportunity for companies to expand and countries to develop their economy. Globalization also raises the productivity and living standards of people in countries and let countries have more business, for example, when a country hosts an overseas company, likely, the company will need to employ quite a number of locals as their worker or labors as it is much cheaper. Therefore the hosting countries can provide more jobs for its citizens. As most people got their own jobs, they have income every month; their living standard will be improved.

Corporations also start to change their focus from the local market to the global market due to globalization. These companies extended their range in terms of markets and production facilities to have a national, multinational, international, or even global reach. These changes also led to increases in terms of power, profits, and productivity. Globalization can also help to reduce the costs of transportation and communication due to technological advances and as well as lowering the costs of data processing, information storage and retrieval.

Unfortunately, this is only the brighter side of things. The economy that globalization is encouraging is capitalist economy, which encourages capitalism, and some countries do not like this idea. Also, while some countries may benefit from globalization, others might not benefit as much, like some of the poorer countries. Globalization may benefit our economy our economy by increasing productivity or enhance technological advances, but sometimes, there are things that are hidden beneath all the outward appearance. In some countries, they do not gain any advantages yet they paid out a lot due to globalization. The westerners keep all the benefits to themselves under the exploitation of others. For example, under the guise of developing, they controlled the global market, pressuring the poorer countries to open their doors to them so that they can infiltrate their local market, competing with their local goods, for example in the case of the so-called “fair trade”.

On the other hand, for the less developed countries, globalization can help them to have more opportunities to learn the new skills and technology. They are now open to access to foreign capital, global export markets, and advanced technology, and are no longer the inefficient and protected domestic producers that they once were. Their economy will be improved as they gained the modern information and technology. The country will grow much faster, become developed and in turn, may promote poverty reduction, democratization, and higher labor and environmental standards.

Secondly, globalization also has impacts on the environment. Although many may not pay attention to this aspect, but nowadays, as the Earth is getting more and more polluted, people also start to pay more emphasis on protecting the Earth. Globalization have indeed improved communications and raised the awareness of everyone around the world.

Contrastively, globalization itself has great damage to the environment. Due to developed countries going into developing countries to exploit their resources, the natural resources is depleting at a rapid speed, yet we are still not doing enough to stop it. As there are strict laws regarding the environment in developed countries, these companies turn their eyes onto developing countries whose environmental laws are more relaxed in comparison. As these developing countries also want to earn revenue and income that these companies bring, they open the door to them, but destroying Mother Earth at the same time.

Thirdly, globalization has also effects on human socially, in their cultural and way of thinking. As countries always need to corporate with each other when they do some investment or business together, as neighbors engage in communication to determine their shared goals, and how they wish to live. Therefore globalization allows humanity to work together as a team towards noble goals rather than as individuals grasping to meet their own needs. Countries can bond to each others more closely. This way, interacting between different races and religion facilitates and we can understand more about other people’s cultures. Thus, exchange of cultural beliefs and understanding between us can contribute to a more peaceful world.

Globalization can also improve the social and economic status of woman, mostly in the developed countries, but now also gradually in the developing countries. In this competitive and globalized world, the role of women becomes even and even more valuable. This can be seen as quite a number of labors are needed for doing different kinds of work, and sometimes, women just happened to be more suitable than man. The status of man and woman are becoming more equal by the day and this is a good trend as the contributions of woman to the society are being acknowledged.

On the contrary, globalization has also gradually eroded some of the traditional cultural values in the youngsters. Westernized thinking, and ways of live, these have created a negative impact on the younger generation. Being technologically advanced is good, but we are now overly reliant on these devices and at the same time, diluting some of our traditional thinking. For example, some of us now have hand phones and computers, thus resulting in the dilution of human relationships as we interact with others face to face lesser and lesser.

Also, the spread of popular culture is another issue. Westernized food, like Coca Cola, Pepsi and other soft drinks, MacDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut and other fast food has gradually replaced the traditional food in the lives of the teenagers. Even though these foods are generally unhealthy, but teenagers think that its cool, it hip, thus we still consume these as part our daily lives. Westernized way of thinking, being open about sexual issues, this is all the things that globalization has infiltrated into the originally traditional and conservative society. Due to this, the generation gap between the elders and the youngsters are also getting larger and larger. Traditional cultural systems are coming to a breakdown if this continues; therefore, some of the very strong religious systems strongly reject globalization.

Last but not least, is the effect of globalization on the development of political systems. With globalization, people start to copy the Americans; they want freedom of speech, democracy and power of the people. With all the world’s eyes on you, the countries dared not make hasty decisions, but even though the government officers have to make more difficult choices, the benefit on the citizens is tremendous. Globalization also acts as a check; this is to ensure that governments do not abuse their power on the people, so that they have more individual freedom, unlike in the old age where the King’s world cannot be defied.

But then again, globalization has also enabled the stronger countries to control the economy and essentially the government of the weaker countries. They dared not offend American because America itself holds a lot of power. For example in the Iraq war, America may say that they are fighting the terrorists but why do people still think that the war is for control of the oil fields? This goes to show that globalization is not really the same to everyone, some may benefit, but others may suffer.

In conclusion, we feel that globalization is an inevitable and irreplaceable process which gradually shapes the way people live. Although the social and environmental issues may appear to be more on the negative side, but the political and economical benefits outweighs the costs. In order to proceed to a new era, maybe we have to leave some things behind, but the development of the whole world, globalization is a must. Therefore, we conclude that the benefits of globalization substantially outweigh its costs.