Is Globalization ultimately positive or negative, or somewhere in between?

April 29, 2013

Steven L. Johnson
(HIS-213254-02-13SP1) Globalization: MOD. 06
Professor: Aileen Schlissel

Cover

Abstract
Is Globalization ultimately positive or negative, or somewhere in between? The easy
answer is, somewhere in between. That may a very good answer but it is not the
only answer. It depends on the topic and the perspective, global multinational
corporations may have one view and out of work low skilled manufacturing worker
may have another view. Through this paper we will explore the geo-political, global
economic and the environmental impact of globalization. We will also take a look at
the effect on individuals, families and communities.
Globalization is a phenomenon that touches almost every aspect of our lives in
some way. Many people detest globalization and protest against it, normally
focused on a single concern or several that may be closely related. Others see no
problem with the expansion of multinational corporations. These same people are
often unconcerned about the global reach of powerful NGOs such as the World
Bank, The International Monetary Fund, The World Trade Organization and the
United Nations.
This paper is sprinkled with commentary from some of my other works in this class,
we have covered a lot of material and recalling details previously researched and
pontificated is beneficial to the globalization, positive or negative analysis.

Table of Contents
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Cover...........................................................................................................1
Abstract.......................................................................................................2
Children & Families........................................................................................4
Population & Aging......................................................................................4
Food and Agriculture......................................................................................5
Education & the Arts......................................................................................5
Energy & Environment....................................................................................6
Health & Health Care.....................................................................................8
Infrastructure & Transportation........................................................................9
Political structures........................................................................................10
Science & Technology...................................................................................11
Looking Ahead.............................................................................................11
References:................................................................................................12

Children & Families

Children make up one third of the worlds population and are vulnerable to the
affects of globalization. Children in many cases are passive recipients of what takes
place around them as multinational corporations and governments change their
world. In other cases they are exploited for low cost labor.
Families are certainly an interregnal part of globalization. Family members are the
workers at multinational corporations facilitating the production of goods and
services. These families are also part of the global economy, not only for their
inputs but also for their consumption of goods and services. As globalization
propagates at the micro level families may enjoy improved standards of living.
Globalization also tends to promote more democratic governments and may afford
these families more personal freedom.
Overall: Positive

Population & Aging

The worlds population is over seven billion people today and by 2050 it will be over
9 billion people. Populations of older people typically are highest in more developed
countries. In many developing countries life spans will be 150% of what they are
today because of better medical care, nutrition, clean water, and mechanization of
laborious tasks.
Overall: Positive

Food and Agriculture

The problem is not globalization; if anything it has been part of the solution, the
problem is the world population is increasing at such a rate that even for large agribusiness to keep up it will be difficult. The worlds population is 7,113,307,000. It is
estimated that in the year 2050 that the world population will be 9,200,000,000.
The huge population growth is should be of concern to everyone on the planet.
Many forward thinking companies are planning for this increase. Agricultural
equipment manufacturers are improving their machines productivity, seed and
chemical companies are improving crop yields. Food and grain commodity facilities
are taking steps to eliminate waste and food processing companies are making use
of as much of their input goods as they can. No one is making more arable land and
no one is making more water.
As global citizens we need to help facilitate the development of farmland and
farmers in the areas of the world that can sustain crops and are currently not
producing, enabling them to become productive and feed their local populations.
Overall: Positive

Education & the Arts

Education has a close link with technology today. Technology is allowing me to take
classes at a university that is hundreds of miles from my home. I could just as
easily enroll at a university in Ireland, Australia or South Africa, because it is now
technologically practical and affordable. This is also true of people in parts of the
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world that may have not had the opportunity to attend a university. I feel that we
will see education evolve with public domain lectures and texts that can greatly
reduce cost while addressing a larger number of students.
The Arts also have a very strong tie with technology. Movies, music, and the ability
to discover almost anything on the internet is amazing. I am fond of the classic
books that you can download for free from Project Guttenberg. An amazing amount
of images and paintings are cataloged on Getty Images and can be found through
Google Images.
Language is evolving as it has forever here in the US and in many parts of the
world people use terms, phrases and greeting that are not native to their home
land. English has become the most prominent language of business worldwide. The
common spoken English language is picking up bits and pieces of other languages,
words like: ciao, amigo, sayonara, and many others. Many people that I meet in my
travels and at home incorporate these non-English words into their vocabulary.
Overall: Positive

Energy & Environment

Energy as a category encompasses; oil, gasoline, natural gas, coal and other nonrenewable products. The cost of these products in global markets has a direct effect
on what it costs to heat and cool my home and provide fuel for my vehicle. So this
does hit home, especially gasoline, natural gas and our coal fired electric utility
plants have kept costs relatively stable.
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Resources are an important issue, not only metals and minerals used for producing
goods but food and water resources. On our planet we have more than seven billion
people and the population is growing. Without deforestation we will not gain a
significant amount of arable farm land, yet there is a constant growth in the
number of people on the planet to feed. Advancements in agricultural technologies
and methods are helping to produce enough food for all. People are starving in
some parts of the world for several reasons, political strife, a poor means of food
distribution and a lack of water. It makes you wonder why we see people living in
areas with little in the way of water resources. They are unable to raise livestock or
grow crops effectively. I am thankful that I live in an area with an abundant water
supply and productive agricultural resources.
Our environment has been taken for granted for a very long time. Now with high
density population centers creating so much air pollution that it becomes a visibility
problem governments even those third world countries are starting to take action.
Lets hope that it is not too late. Water and soil has also been polluted in many
areas, most of them industrial. As regulations have become stricter in the Western
world these issues have moved to the east. In the area that I live in there are many
industrial sites with soil contamination.
Overall: Negative

Health & Health Care

The health of the people on the entire earth can become a concern, with travel
being fast and being global a virus on the other side of the earth can become a
global epidemic practically overnight. Global health issues become local health
issues very quickly. This is the negative and cautionary side of the health issue, in
contrast with todays technology, communications and transportation we can
respond to famine and disease much faster. This being true the motivation and
political will need to be found in our leaders to react when help is needed.
What we also need to acknowledge is that advancements in medicine have changed
our lives.mostly for the better.
The invention of Penicillin and the elimination of Polio are landmark events that
have changed our world. There are still many great things happening in
pharmaceutical research and development. We can also look to drug marketing as
preying on people and doctors to over prescribe medicines.
In the US and it seems the western world that we have let down our mentally ill
and developmentally challenged. We fill these people full of drugs to control them.
The many people that in years past would have been institutionalized are living with
their aging parents or are in prison. Our governments and the commercial entities
that benefit from the status quo have a lot of blame to accept for these conditions.
Overall: Leaning negative

Infrastructure & Transportation

Transportation has always played a role in globalization, what has change is the
speed. Man walked out of Africa into South Asia and Europe thousands of years
ago. In the last few hundred years millions of immigrants traveled to the US for
religious freedom and economic opportunity, largely by Sea. This was the
motivation and the method for some of my ancestors that came to America.
Immigration is not the only way that travel influences globalization. Tourism,
business travel and just visiting friends and family have an influence on the cultural
experience of the visitor and the visited.
Transportation has made operating globally much easier for businesses. Time to
market can be greatly improved with air-freight of goods. For companies that
produce software or provide web based services, delivery can be electronic and as
long as adequate infrastructure is in place the company could be located almost
anywhere. In addition to transportation fulfillment companies have sprung up
around the world. These companies provide warehousing, shipping and inventory
control. In essence you could run a good sized distribution company, taking orders
on your own web site, Amazon and others while working administratively from
home and never touching the products that you are selling all over the planet. It is
not just the entrepreneur working in his or her pajamas that is taking advantage of
this new infrastructure, large multinational corporations are also enjoying the
benefits of shared infrastructure provide by other large companies such as UPS and
FedEx.
Overall: Positive
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Political structures
Government, I say government and the first thought is the US government and
those of sovereign states. You may say yes and I agree that that is our government
but government too is becoming global. We already have many pseudo world
government entities. The first that comes to mind is the United Nations of course
and it can even assemble a military. We have sub agencies of the UN like the
committee on global climate change; you may recall the Kyoto protocol. United
Nations Children's Fund UNICEF; certainly a good organization put in place to
protect children. Other global organizations such as the World Bank, The
International Monetary Fund, WHO The World Health Organization, The ICJ
International Court of Justice The World Court and there are more.
Overall: Negative

Law & Business

Intellectual property is another consideration when considering export, licensing
and other means of selling globally. If you sell products to countries such as China
will your products intellectual property be safe, or might it be reverse engineered?
In many cases companies have unwittingly created their own competitors because
of poor enforcement of intellectual property rights. There are several organizations
that try to help police these efforts, one of them is the WTO, (World Trade
Organization); we may assume that the concept of stealing someone elses ideas
has been around for about as long as mankind and it will not stop.

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Overall: Positive

Science & Technology

Technology has helped to level the playing field of global economic competition.
Telecommunications has evolved from calling a place or for a while a car to calling a
person regardless of where on the planet they may be standing. Computers and
applications like, email, the internet and social media have created speed and
efficiency in communications and helping to facilitate the exchange of news and
ideas. This certainly has an impact on me and in particular my professional life.
Email is an essential tool in my business day. Many meetings are conducted via
Skype and WebEx video call applications that allow face to face communications, on
some days between three continents.
Overall: Positive

Looking Ahead

Globalization may be moving us to one central government, I can see this

happening it may take a couple of hundred years but it looks to me that the
foundation is being laid. The UN has defined World Heritage Sites, basically creating
parks in sovereign countries. This is one of the things that have affected the US, I
am not sure what this globalization means to me on the local and personal level but
my great-great grandchildren will probably have a good idea.
Overall: Scary!
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References:

US Department of State, Office of Global Food Security, L'Aquila Food Security

Initiative Final Report 2012: Final Report,
http://www.state.gov/s/globalfoodsecurity/rls/rpt/laquila/202837.htm

Deloitte, 2013 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index,

http://www.compete.org/ncf/Council_GMCI_2012.pdf

The Economist, The new maker rules, Big forces are reshaping the world of
manufacturing,
Nov 24th 2012 | NEW YORK |From the print edition.
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21567127-big-forces-are-reshapingworld-manufacturing-new-maker-rules

The Rand Corporation, Think Globally, Manufacture Locally: Redrawing the Map of
Manufacturing, by: Robert Gunther,
http://smapp.rand.org/ise/ourfuture/Manufacturing/sec8_think.html

KPMG, Global Manufacturing Outlook: Fostering Growth through Innovation Global

research commissioned by KPMG International from the Economist Intelligence Unit
http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/globalmanufacturing-outlook/Documents/fostering-growth-through-innovation.pdf

The Economist, Greedand fear, The golden age of finance collapsed under its own
contradictions. Edward Carr (interviewed here) asks why it went wrong and what to
do next, Jan 22nd 2009
http://www.economist.com/node/12957709

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United Nations, General Assembly - GA/EF/3343, 18 October 2012, Department of

Public Information, News and Media Division, New York, Sixty-seventh General
Assembly, Second Committee,
11th Meeting (AM), Speakers Discuss Benefits, Pitfalls of Migration as Second
Committee Considers Globalization and Interdependence, Delegations Voice
Support for 2013 General Assembly High-level Dialogue.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2012/gaef3343.doc.htm

Cato Institute, The Blessings and Challenges of Globalization, By: Daniel Griswold,
This article appeared on Cato.org on September 1, 2000.
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/blessings-challenges-globalization

The Hamilton Project of The Brookings Institution & The Center for American
Progress:
The Polarization of Job Opportunities in the U.S. Labor Market, Implications for
Employment and Earnings, David Autor, MIT Department of Economics and National
Bureau of Economic Research
April 2010, http://economics.mit.edu/files/5554

Vistawide: Top 30 Languages by Number of Native Speakers, Data source:

Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. (2005) & Wikipedia.org.
http://www.vistawide.com/languages/top_30_languages.htm

Time Magazine: U.S. Economy Adds Just 88,000 Jobs in March; Unemployment
Rate Falls to 7.6% By Christopher Matthews, April 05, 2013,
http://business.time.com/2013/04/05/u-s-economy-adds-just-88000-jobs-inmarch-unemployment-rate-falls-to-7-6/

All Top 10 List/Pharma, http://www.alltop10list.com/top-10-list-of-pharmaceuticalcompanies/

Economic Policy Institute,

http://www.gpn.org/topics-globalization.html

The Rand Corporation, http://www.rand.org/topics/globalization.html

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The Economist, http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2012/10/language-skills

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120522-one-world-order
Globalization, A Short History; Princeton University Press, 2005, Osterhammel &
Petersson,
Preface (vii xi)

The United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) - Economic
and Social Council (ECOSOC), Linking globalization and families through family
policies, Tuesday, 07 June 2011
http://social.un.org/index/Family/WhatsNew/tabid/1558/news/107/Default.aspx

Aging and Globalization, Jason L. Powell, Ph.D., University of Central Lancashire, UK

Sincrona Fall 2011, http://sincronia.cucsh.udg.mx/powellfall2011b.htm

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