Benefits and Problems of Economic Globalization

Have you ever bought some products from oversea without coming to that countries? Nowadays, people can buy products from other countries easier than before due to economic globalization. Over the past few decades, the well – being of society has always grabbed attention of people all over the world, and developed economy is become a main goal of many nations. We both know that economic globalization is the trend very popular these days and has effected all the aspects in modern life such as: finance, markets, labor and technology. Globalization and transnational business has made the world become a village. In fact, this trend has caused some arguments among politicians and residents in many countries, and we can clearly see that President Trump and his competitor – Hillary Clinton – have difference idea about it.  Some adopt a view that economic globalization is a positive trend in which both businessman and customers have beneficial markets. Most of economists consent that globe trade help increase competition, and make the market more convenient and effective. On the contrary, some people see that economic globalization is a grave mistake of governments and economists because it contributed to destroy the world by restricting small business and changing citizen life. In this research paper, the pitfall of economic globalization will be showed in the aspect of work –place and natural environment.

First of all, jobs loss, which is a result of economic globalization, is a huge problem for developed countries; also, countries all over the world has depended on each other throughout globalization. The President Donald Trump of the United State said that, “Our politicians have aggressively pursued a policy of globalization moving our jobs, our wealth and our factories to Mexico and overseas. Globalization has made the financial elite who donates to politicians very wealthy. But it has left millions of our workers with nothing but poverty and heartache.” (Declaring American Economic Independence). It is clear to see President Trump, with his experience in business, recognized that economic globalization has brought a lot of problems to his country like “poverty” and “heartache” because of unemployment. The best evident that supported to President Trump’s standpoint was showed in the research paper of Economic Policy Institute; according to Will Kimball and Robert Scott in their research “China Trade, outsourcing and jobs”, the 2.4 million the U.S jobs lost or displaced by good trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013 were in manufacturing industries, especially over 1.2 million jobs lost in advanced technology industry which is considered as a competitive advantage for the U.S. Economic globalization has transferred jobs from developed countries to developing countries by outsourcing. As a result of this, the lack of job in developed nations has become hardly solving problem for government and economists. Besides that, it creates unfair competition between small businesses and multinational corporations. In developing countries, foreign business gain almost benefit from their own resources meanwhile foreign investors don’t spend enough money for the resources they take. To sum up, economies are more and more dependent on each other.

Secondly, economic globalization is to bring horrible problem for environment such as: air pollution, soil pollution and water pollution. In the article “The Dark Side of Globalization”, Noah Smith said, “Globalization seem to export pollution to developing countries” (The Atlantic), China citizens are bearing serious population by coal smoke, which is burned from heavy industry. Consequently, China has become the world’s top of carbon dioxide emission; of course, that emission come from the process to make products that are exported to America and other developed countries. In the article “Globalization effect on Biodiversity, Environment and Society” David Ehrenfeld mention, “In Taiwan, exports have soared as a result of globe trade: forest have cleared for industry development and tree farm, soil and water have been polluted by pesticides and fertilizers and 90.000 factories dump their wastes into air and waterways”, with the similar situation with China, Taiwan has gotten many problems in environment and protecting natural resource. In the same article, David Ehrenfeld claim that the transport of raw material and finished goods contribute to damage the environment by gasoline. For example, sweet pepper and strawberry from Mexico are imported to Canada, and America imports steel from China instead of producing in domestic. It is obvious that the environmental cost of globalization is very expensive. Nowadays, we are stuck in the problems of global warming that is caused by pollution and emissions from manufacturing and transportation. Furthermore, natural resources are becoming exhausted due to the lack of awareness.

Many people think that economic globalization brings tremendous benefits for us in terms of technology and education. According to Kofi Anna – the former Secretary of The United Nation told that, ”It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity” (The New York Time, 2000); in the one hand, we cannot reject the beneficial in working and studying environment that was created by interacting technology and education methods between nations. Without economic globalization, there is less competition between nations, certainly in the field of technology and education. The domestic products may decrease in quality, and education lack innovation. Additionally, global trade open the new market, in which enterprises have the opportunity to trade freely their product in other countries. The Peterson institute for international economies estimate that globe trade would increase the US income $500 billion (The Balance). In the other hand, it goes hand in hand with problems even though economic globalization concentrates on developing the economy, sharing technology, and enhancing education all over the world. The cost of free trading has become a burden on each country because globalization has left a lot of hard problems for government and economist, and it will have to take a long time to solve.

In a nutshell, economic globalization has brought huge problems to each nations for a lot of reasons; however, this paper research just focus on two principle reasons. The first crucial reason is unemployment phenomenon. Job loss is now a big trouble in developed nations, and governments trying to create more jobs for their residents by limited outsourcing or get back their heavy industry like the way the U.S government is trying to do now. The second important reason is the serious influence on environment. Nowadays, we have to face with environmental disaster that caused by human activities, especially manufacturing and trading. Needless to say, the prime factor, that strongly promotes manufacturing and trading, is economic globalization. As every garden has its weeds, government and economist should have further consideration on this trend, not only focus on developing economic but also making law to protect the environment and labors. Moreover, civilians should get ready for globalization, we need to broaden our knowledge, practice our skills and having more interpersonal interaction, in order to integrate into the ever-changed environment and work- place.

Sources:

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-addresses-re-declaring-our-american-independence

 (President Donald Trump, Declaring American Economic Independence, 2017)

http://www.epi.org/publication/china-trade-outsourcing-and-jobs/

(Will Kimball & Robert Scott, China trade, outsourcing and job, 2014)

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-dark-side-of-globalization-why-seattles-1999-protesters-were-right/282831/

 (Noah Smith, the dark side of globalization, the Atlantic, 2014)

http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2003;volume=1;issue=1;spage=99;epage=111;aulast=Ehrenfeld;type=0

(David Ehrenfeld, Globalization effect on Biodiversity, Environment and Society, conversationandsociety.org, 2003)

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/03/world/globalization-tops-3-day-un-agenda-for-world-leaders.html

(Barbara Crossette, Globalization Tops 3-Day U.N. Agenda For World Leaders, 2000)

https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-trade-protectionism-3305896

(Kimberly Amadeo, Trade Protectionism: 4 Methods with Examples, Pros and Cons, 2017)