Globalization and Cultural Change - Essay Example

Unfettered capital flows give the U.S. access to foreign investment and keep interest rates low. Weaknesses and Threats: Millions of Americans have lost jobs due to imports or production shifts abroad. Most find new jobs--that pay less. Millions of others fear losing their jobs, especially at those companies operating under competitive pressure.

Workers face pay-cut demands from employers, which often threaten to export jobs. Service and white-collar jobs are increasingly vulnerable to operations moving offshore. U.S. employees can lose their comparative advantage when companies build advanced factories in low-wage countries, making them as productive as those at home. Anthropology can be very beneficial in the study of globalization if properly organized. 

Anthropology, however, has yet to engage in an exploration of its own assumptions, findings, and responses to "globalization" in an attempt to integrate our anthropological understanding of these processes, to evaluate the questions that frame research and advocacy and the methods used in carrying these out, and to communicate our contributions in this area of research to our discipline, policymakers, and the public.

The implications that globalization has on societies are quite extreme, especially in developing third-world nations. For example, Thousands of farms and homes in east and central India are being swallowed up by coal mines financed by the World Bank. The entire village of Balanda was demolished last year by bulldozers. The local villagers were sent to the "resettlement colony" of Handidhua, which lacked drinkable water, electricity, and small businesses promised as part of the $530 million World Bank loan guarantees.

These are just a few of the many severe implications that globalization brings upon the world (Lukas, 2000: 4). But do the benefits outweigh the costs.