Rola Nashed

Mr. Coombes
CGW4U
September 27th 2018
Globalization Opinion Piece
Globalization is a heavily assessed topic that has become prevalent through the recent

years, I would define it as the free movement of goods, services, and people across the world in a

seamless and integrated manner, and further a process of interaction among people, companies,

and governments all across the world of different nations. I would argue that globalization is

driven by international trade and investment aided by new technology. It is because of

technological advancements in the recent years that there have been increases in cross-border

trade, investment, and migration. Opening up the global economy increases interconnectedness

and integration of the economies of the world. Provided the definition, many people have

different opinions about globalization and therefore it has various advantages and disadvantages.

There are many benefits of globalization, one being increase in employment

opportunities; as globalization increases more and more companies set up business in other

countries which in turn increases employment opportunity and people can get better jobs without

having to move to different countries. For example, companies such as Microsoft, Google,

Toyota, etc. have their offices in India and many indians work for these companies, without

globalization these people would not have had the opportunity to work for such multinational

companies and increase the countries’ economic growth. Another benefit is the faster flow of

information and communications; since information flows from one part of the world to the other

immediately the world is in a way tied together. Vital information can be shared between

individuals and corporations at a very fast rate and increased the ease of transporting people and
goods. An example of this being a person in Sweden being able to access Donald Trump’s tweets

at the touch of a screen as well as the ability for people to fly from country to country in just a

matter of hours. Also, an increase in free trade has opened doors for investors in developed

countries to invest their money in developing countries. Big companies from developed countries

have the freedom to operate in developing countries. For example in the 2000s, Japanese and

European companies such as Kawasaki and Siemens started producing high-speed trains in

China. This helped Chinese firms in gaining knowledge about the production process and now

Chinese companies such as China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp. are producing

high-speed trains on their own. Another benefit is reduction of cultural barriers, as people move

from one country to another, barriers between various cultures tend to decrease. This has resulted

in tolerance and openness towards other cultures. This has also facilitated communication

between different cultures and hence, nations. It has also led to a reduction in wars as we are

today living in one of the most peaceful periods in the history of mankind. It is for this reason

that countries like Canada are a cultural mosaic and take pride in our cultural diversity. ​Next,

education has dramatically improved. With the increase in globalization, it has become easier for

people to move across borders to different parts of the world to acquire better education. This has

resulted in an integration of cultures. People from underdeveloped and developing countries

often move to developed countries to get better education. More and more Indian students are

traveling to countries like the UK or the USA to pursue higher education. This has also opened

their cultures towards the Indian culture to some extent. There are of course many more such as a

decrease in absolute poverty, advancements in medicine, decrease in child labour/child abuse,

and the improvement of the status of women.

environmental degradation. Developed countries can take advantage of underdeveloped

countries’ weak regulatory laws in terms of environmental protection an example being India

whose environmental laws meet world standards but are hardly ever enforced and as a result is

being taken advantage of. There is also a growing disparity among the rich and the poor; 86% of

the world’s resources are said to be consumed by the richest 20% of the world's population.

Which means the poorer 80% only consumes 14% of world resources. Disease also continues to

spread rapidly throughout the world; diseases such as AIDS/HIV are being spread via travelers

as a consequence of globalization. Diseases are being spread specifically from south to north

however non-communicable diseases by transmission of culture and behaviour have moved from

north to south. Surprisingly there can often be a fall in employment growth rate; advances that

should increase productivity and create jobs has actually seen a decrease in employment growth

rates of some developing economies such as south africa which started in the 2000’s with a

25.57% unemployment rate to now a 26.6% unemployment rate. Also with high competition and

the moving of production facilities to gain cheaper wages and maximize profit there is little job

security. Another issue is unfair working conditions and exploitation of workers. Many

multinational companies have been accused of social injustice by exploiting labour in

underdeveloped nations in order to cut costs. Many large companies have been accused of using

child labour in their factories in underdeveloped nations. An example being Nike’s use of child

labour among with poor working conditions and low wages in its factories in Indonesia. Lastly

small scale businesses usually die out due to the large power that multinational companies have

over them, due to limited resources and power these small industries are unable to compete and
as a result go out of business. An example of this is the bamboo furniture industry in India, since

the manufacturers work out of their homes they cannot compete with large companies selling

cheaper plastic furniture. As well as these problems there are of course many more such as

increased terrorism, increased fast food consumption, etc.

I believe that corporations have a very impactful and significant role with respect to the

current impacts of globalization, I believe it is important that multinational corporations own up

to the problems they are responsible for. Overall I believe that corporations are the largest cause

of most of globalizations consequences and they should therefore be held responsible and

attempt to create societal benefit rather than taking advantage of workers, nations, and laws for

their own benefit. There are 5 specific corporations that are actively destroying the environment

which is one of the major drawbacks of globalization, these corporations being; Chevron,

ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, British Petroleum, and Gazprom. What these oil and gas companies

have in common is that they contribute significantly to global warming emissions and only one

of these corporations is attempting to reduce their carbon footprint (Saudi Aramco) many of

them are also responsible for major oil spills that have affected various surrounding nations and

have not taken any accountability. Furthermore the apparel industry is significantly abusing

outsourcing and exploiting its workers. Even though in the right conditions outsourcing can be

beneficial to a developing nations growing economy in the recent years corporations have

provided inhumane working conditions, exploiting their workers, and allowing child labour.

Recently a fire that killed 112 workers in a factory producing for walmart, sears, disney, and

other apparel corporations was the deadliest in the history of Bangladesh. In the last 2 years fires

in Bangladesh and pakistan have taken the lives of nearly 500 apparel workers at plants
producing for Gap, H&M, JCPenney, Target, etc. However these deaths are preventable, if only

corporations used lower wages to their advantage but provided safe and stable working

conditions. This is only a minor example of many other ruthless violations of human rights but it

effectively displays that corporations are largely responsible for exploitation and abuse of

workers. Also since multinational companies have gained immense power in these developing

countries they now have influence over political decisions that they can change in favour of their

flourishing business which once again is only in the best interest of the corporation. Therefore it

is clear that corporations play a significant role in the success of a developing nation and its

people. It is also worth noting that corporations openly take advantage of lacking societies

without established or well enforced laws to once again maximize profit. Since I believe many of

the disadvantages of globalization can be combated by more ethical corporations I strongly

believe that it is vital for corporations to be socially responsible for their actions and want to

advance globalization in a positive way since the success of globalization is to these

corporations’ benefit.

Overall I believe that globalization is positive and has had much more positive impact

than it has negative. Although the negative impacts seem to take a greater toll or seem larger than

the benefits I believe that our world would be nowhere near as evolved as it is today without the

impacts of globalization. I believe corporate responsibility is the key to implementing positive

impacts from this point forward. However as of currently I believe that globalization has turned

the world into an integrated economy instead of a series of isolated economies which is

beneficial since the more trading that takes place the more wealth is created and this increased

wealth has immensely helped lift people out of poverty and create better circumstances for
people in our world. This also creates efficiency and competition; we have learned to use our

resources more efficiently due to globalization and there are more new products and new

varieties of products which contributes to our evolving society. To poor countries globalization

brings them the chance to sell their low cost labour or natural resources to the countries who do

not have the natural resources. Even though people in developing countries are paid less it is a

significant step up for amount of people working and ability to lift themselves out of poverty,

increase quality of life, and benefit the economy. To those in richer countries globalization

brings lower costs for the things they are unable to produce which leaves these nations with

spending power to spare and a higher standard of living. Furthermore I strongly believe that the

world economy has brought independence; as countries cooperate in trade with each other they

grow into the habit of resolving disputes by negotiation and agreement instead of by armed

conflict. For all of these explained reasons I strongly believe that without globalization our world

would not be where it is today, and that the benefits and advantages strongly outweigh the

disadvantages.