Poverty & Inequality - Essay Example

Humans once believed that the world was flat instead of being a sphere. Despite this false information humanity saw a need to expand its horizons into other parts of the planet. The European settlers discovered America which provided the old world with new resources that enhanced the quality of life of their people. In the 20th century a movement of similar statute influenced governments across world. This movement can be referred to as the globalization movement. Globalization can be defined as the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments of different nations (Globalization101). Globalization has impacted the world in both positive negative manners. The purpose of this paper is to discuss globalization and its impact on society. There are several factors that have affected the globalization movement and its ability to impact different people and nations. Advances in technology particularly information technology has allowed people to obtain data and information instantly. The internet has helped unite the world and has cut down a lot of the cultural barriers that use to separate us. Two other factors that affected globalization are international trade and global finances. The world economy is highly depended on the imports and exports of over 200 nations. Wall Street and the other major financial centers such as London and Tokyo are needed to raise the capital the private and public sector needs to progress. International trade began thousands of years ago, but it was not until the 20th century that the world completely united. During this century the amount of trade among nations increased dramatically. “The overall volume of trade grew 2.5 times faster than the world GDP, compared to the average 1.5 times over the period since WWII” (Worldbank). World trade was liberated in the 20th century through the creation of many different free trade agreements and alliances. Two examples of these agreements are NAFTA and the European Union. The utilization of different currencies is important to achieve the barter of goods. A mechanism that has allowed countries to value goods at the proper level is currency exchange. Due to the globalization movement countries cooperate with each other to achieve common goals. For example the world food supply is a common good. The use of technology transfers has helped poor countries improve their agricultural capacity. Globalization has helped create work opportunities for many international workers. Many countries such as the United States are now able to import talent from other parts of the world to meet their labor demands. Multinational corporations have been one of the biggest beneficiaries of globalization. These companies are able to distribute and sell their products across international boundaries. For example McDonald’s the world largest fast food chain has a physical presence in 117 countries (Mcdonalds, 2010). Corporations have benefited from globalization in all aspects of their business. They are able to select the best locations to produce their goods at the lowest cost. China has become the world top manufacturer of goods due to the cheap labor that the country has to offer. Industrialized nations such as the United States have shifted to knowledge serviced based economies. Another positive aspect of globalization is that it has spurred the traffic or movement of human across the world. This has made tourism one of the most lucrative industries, one which many small countries are highly dependent on. For example in Barbados the country’s overall employment is 10% depend on tourism dollars. Globalization created the ability for people to visit other parts of the world easily. Countries with socialist regimes such as Cuba have not been able to fully penetrate the global economy due to the US embargo on the nation. On the other side of spectrum China instead of being inhibited by their political regime decided to open up its markets to the free world. In 2003 China was accepted into the World Trade Organization. Despite the benefits of the globalization, the movement has other negative aspects that have influenced the global society. One of the biggest problems associated with globalization is environmental damage. The furious industrial expansion and the high rate of population growth during the last century depleted and contaminated a lot of our natural resources. Problems such as deforestation, global warming, and water pollution are the prices the planet had to pay when globalization expanded. Brazil which holds largest rainforest has lost 600,000 square kilometers of forest since 1970 (Butler, 2010). The excessive use of coal and oil to create energy and fuel has depleted the world’s petroleum reserves. As a consequence the price of gasoline has skyrocketed and the ozone layer continues to be deteriorated from its continuous use. One of challenges is that each country has its own policies and there is a lack of cooperation among governments. The poorest countries that are going through the early stages of industrialization are not willing to comply with the higher standards set by developed nations since it gives them a competitive advantage as far as attracting foreign investment. A second major problem associated with the globalization movement is wealth inequity. Despite the fast the world wealth has grown, the money is not being evenly distributed across the population. The world richest 5% hold 70%, a more glaring stat is that world richest 1% holds 40% of the wealth (Stwr, 2006). There are entire continents such as the African people where people have to live on less than $2 a day. Since globalization was a movement of its own there were not protocols or preventive measures in place to prevent the rich from getting richer and poor from starving to death. Due to the need for global assistance a network of thousands of non-profit organization such as Feed the Children have appear to provide help for poor people in need. These organizations are able to operate in different countries due to the globalization movement. It is the duty and responsibility of the developed world to give something back to those in need. Currently the United States only donates less than 1% of the gross domestic product to assist the poor worldwide. Globalization has transformed our planet during the past hundred years. After the end of WWII there was a need for countries to unite forces in order to start rebuilding. The unification did not incur in terms of political ties, instead the world became united through commercialization and expansion of industrial activity worldwide. Even though there is a huge inequity in wealth, globalization created hundreds of millions of jobs that provided financial security to many families. Corporations benefited by gaining access to global talent pool of potential employees. In many parts of the world such as India jobs have been created through the use of technological advances such as telecommuting arrangements. The United Nations has to step in and created better guidelines for environmental protection. The planet cannot continue the destructive behavior of the 20th century for the next 90 years. Eliminating the world’s dependency on oil will help lower our pollution levels and it will ensure our future generations have available oil for their needs. The future brings a lot of promise for our society. Globalization should continue to break barriers and open up doors as many developing nations begin to prosper in the global economy. As we move forward greater awareness must occur in order to destroy poverty and improve the quality of living of all the planet’s inhabitants. The private and public sector must work together to achieve greater progress without hurting our environment in the 21st century. References Butler, R. (2010). Deforestation in the Amazon. [Accessed 6 August 2010] Globalization101.org. What is Globalization? [Accessed 6 August 2010] Mcdonalds.com (2010). Getting to Know Us… [Accessed 6 August 2010] Stwr.org (2006). Poverty & Inequality. [Accessed 6 August 2010] Worldbank.org. Something Special about the 1990s? Worldbank. Read More