Your shirt was made in Mexico and your shoes in China.

Your CD player comes from

Japan. You can travel to Moscow and eat a Big Mac there and you can watch an Am
erican film in Rome. Today goods are made and sold all over the world, thanks to
globalization.
Globalization lets countries move closer to each other. People, companies and or
ganizations in different countries can live and work together. We can exchange g
oods , money and ideas faster and cheaper than ever before. Modern communication
and technology, like the Internet, cell phones or satellite TV help us in our d
aily lives.
Globalization is growing quickly. A German company can produce cars in Argentina
and then sell them in the United States. A businessman in Great Britain can buy
a part of a company in Indonesia on one day and sell parts of another business
in China the next, thanks to globalization. Fast food companies open shops aroun
d the world almost every day.

Globalization is not new. For thousands of years people have been trading goods
and travelling across great distances. During the Middle Ages, merchants travell
ed along the Silk Road, which connected Europe and China.
The modern age of globalization started with the Industrial Revolution at the en
d of the 18th century. New machines were able to produce cheaper goods. Trains a
nd steam-powered boats transported products farther and faster.
Since 1980, globalization has been moving at a faster pace. Today it is easier f
or companies to work in other countries. The Internet gives them the chance of r
eaching more customers around the world. Teleworkers work for firms that may be
far away.
However , there is a growing debate over globalization. Governments are in favou
r of globalization because the economy can grow. Other people are not so sure th
at there are only advantages. Here are some arguments from both sides:
Good sides
Globalization lets countries do what they can do best. If, for example, you
buy cheap steel from another country you don t have to make your own steel. You ca
n focus on computers or other things.
Globalization gives you a larger market. You can sell more goods and make mo
re money. You can create more jobs.
Consumers also profit from globalization. Products become cheaper and you ca
n get new goods more quickly.
Bad sides
Globalization causes unemployment in industrialized countries because firms
move their factories to places where they can get cheaper workers.
Globalization may lead to more environmental problems. A company may want to
build factories in other countries because environmental laws are not as strict
as they are at home. Poor countries in the Third World may have to cut down mor
e trees so that they can sell wood to richer countries.
Globalization can lead to financial problems . In the 1970s and 80s countrie
s like Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia or Brazil got a lot of money from investors w
ho hoped they could build up new businesses there. These new companies often did
n t work, so they had to close down and investors pulled out their money.
Some of the poorest countries in the world, especially in Africa, may get ev

en poorer. Their population is not as educated as in developed countries and the

y don t have the new technology that we do.
Human, animal and plant diseases can spread more quickly through globalizati
on.

Many experts say that we need a different kind of globalization in our world tod
ay. There must be ways to make sure that all countries profit from the good side
s of globalization. We should help poorer countries by giving them better educat
ion and showing them how new technology works.
Every year, leaders of the world s biggest industrial countries get together to di
scuss economic problems. This meeting is called the G8 summit. In the last few y
ears groups against globalization have organized protest marches and demonstrati
ons to point out that not everyone is happy with how the world s economy is develo
ping.

WHAT IS GOOD ABOUT GLOBALISATION?

We have wide-screen TV's. We have cheap Chinese goods. The greatest benefit from
globalisation is that it gives some countries a greater range of cheap overseas
goods to buy. The cheaper prices are not a lasting result of globalisation thou
gh, but rather a reflection of the non-level playing field that currently exists
within the global economy.
Government subsidies, import tariffs and lower paid workforces are what make the
playing field of the global economy non-level. If the global economy ever reach
es its proclaimed goal of a level playing field, then the cheap goods will becom
e more expensive again. There would not be cheap labour or protective subsidies
anymore. Cheap foreign goods are bait to encourage citizens to accept and assist
the process of globalisation.
As wealthier nations buy those foreign goods they raise the wages of foreign wor
kers and reduce the wages of workers in our own countries by ultimately putting
them out of work. Prolonged high unemployment eventually leads to effective redu
ction in real wages.
So in effect, cheaper goods, which are an evident benefit from globalisation, ar
e precisely what globalisation is aiming to remove through its level playing fie
ld policy. Achieving a level playing field is a stated goal of the WTO.
WHAT IS BAD ABOUT GLOBALISATION?
The bad aspects of globalisation involve human wellbeing, the environment and ec
onomic realities.
Human Wellbeing and Quality of Life
Quality of life is at risk from globalisation in a number of different areas.
THE END OF DEMOCRACY AND NATIONAL CONTROL
While democratic-styled governments are being installed around the world in the
name of freedom, the essential structure of democracy itself is being undermined
by globalisation.
Many fundamental areas of society that were traditionally administered by democr
atically elected governments are now becoming administered by unelected and unap
proachable multinational boards.

* Where governments were open to public scrutiny, corporations operate in secr

ecy within their boardrooms in faraway countries.
* Where governments could be voted out if society disapproved, corporations ar
e not subject to elections.
* Where governments made decisions in the interest of the nation, corporations
now make decisions in the interest of profits.
* Where governments were the highest authority in a land, now international la
ws overrule national laws that conflict with them. Even in matters like environm
ental care and public health, international law protects multinational profits o
ver national wellbeing.
PERSONAL STRESS
Globalisation has create new kinds of stress into everyday life. Even proponents
of globalisation admit this, on the basis that "markets are relentless".
Corporations rationalise jobs whenever possible. This can be done by laying off
workers or importing cheap workers from other countries. Job insecurity and the
escalating workloads of existing jobs are eroding quality of life.
At any time fuel prices or interest rates may rise so much it hurts. What if the
re's a recession? What if the stock market crashes? What if the real estate mark
et spikes up high - or down low? A new culture of "fear of the future" is enteri
ng society, caused by multiple long-term insecurities stemming from the new econ
omy. [5]
Environmental Survival
How big must the global economy grow in order to be big enough? How much is enou
gh? Globalisation s answer is that there can never be any such thing as big enough
. In 100 years when, at current growth rates the global economy would have grown
50 times it present size, it would still not be large enough. Continual growth
is necessary for this present economy to survive because of the way it is design
ed. The growth rate is deceptive. 4% annual growth does not sound like much but
the global economy grows exponentially, not mathematically.
Mathematical Growth 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 7
Exponential Growth
1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 = 127
The destruction of natural resources like clean water, forests, arable land, oce
an fish stocks, coral reefs and so on are already causing extreme concern even i
n the traditionally conservative ranks of society. The current rate of extinctio
ns from the planet is comparable to the rate of the extinction event that destro
yed countless millions of species along with the dinosaurs from Earth 65 million
years ago.
Earth is clearly not coping with the demand for resources in the present sized g
lobal economy. At present rates of growth in 30 years the global economy would b
e about 4 times larger than today, and in 60 years it would be 10 to 20 times la
rger than today.
The global economy, which must grow exponentially in order to survive, does not
recognize the realities of the natural world. The logic behind the present globa
l money supply system is like sustaining your life by eating your own body from
the feet up. The global economy is presently on a course to destroy itself throu
gh the planet s lack of ability to sustain it. Like a cancerous growth, the global
economy is growing so vast that it will soon kill it host.
Economic Realities
Their still remains a fundamental flaw built into the post-1970's global monetar
y system, and economic trouble is arising from it again. The flaw in global mone
y supply ensures that debt will always grow at a much faster rate than economies
. View the mathematics yourself in the article Why Economic Growth Is Unsustaina
ble [6]
On its present course, unless there are fundamental changes made quickly to the
global money supply system, the global economy has no option but to collapse wel
l before 2030.
It will be curious to see which inevitable reality the global economy succumbs t
o over the next two decades, crippling debt or nature's inability to cope.
IS GLOBALISATION GOOD?

It would be possible to have a different kind of global economy that works in th

e real world to sustainably serve humanity. The pain and destruction caused by t
he global economy are not inevitable, but simply the result of the way this part
icular global economy is designed.
Is there not more to life than cheap consumer goods? Environmental degradation,
social breakdown and high personal stress levels do not factor into mathematical
profit margins.
The people of a nation care about the well being of their environment and societ
y. Multinational corporations have no such national sentiments. They would give
the world for a dominant market share, and presently they appear to be doing jus
t that

Globalization has a number of negative affects involving the well being of peopl
e. Major corporations have shown they are able to overrule foreign policy decisi
ons. I do not think we should be able to trust these major corporations in the d
ecision making of our global arena when their intentions are mainly in producing
more profits for their corporation. The top 100 companies own 33 percent of the
worlds assets, but employ only one percent of the worlds workforce. Globalizati
on has allowed these corporations to grow to such an insane level, producing pow
er that allows them to stand above the the demands of national governments or in
ternational government such as the United Nations, Red Cross, etc. The informati
on these corporations process is kept from entering the public, and even the low
er levels within their corporation. The rise of these power house corporations h
ave helped destroy the U.S. economy by creating a devastatingly high trade defic
it, which shifted the dominant power of the United Stats economy to China. As of
2011, China is on track to take over the United States by 2025.

Globalization has allowed for the spread of customs, language and products. Glo
balization has allowed for people to be able to attain goods and services not pr
eviously available. You can find Coca-Cola, McDonalds and KFC in most major cit
ies throughout the world. Globalization has allowed people to become familiar w
ith the culture of other countries allowing for a greater understanding. While
globalization opens doors it also leads to blending of cultures and the deterior
ation of unique cultural differences. The negatives of globalization include ga
p between rich and poor, reduction in individual sovereignty of a nation, enviro
nmental pollution and susceptibility of all parts of the world suffering with re
cession in other countries.