Do you think globalization is a good thing?
Please vote before reading my post.
(Wheelan 201)
Wheelan, Charles. Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science. Boston: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003.
I wrote the following for a school assignment, and felt it would apply:
The antiglobalization argument certainly has merit, though it is terribly misinformed. The belief is, gargantuan corporations with overseas interests are merely taking advantage of the poverty stricken people, by forcing them to work in horrid sweatshops, and allowing child labor, and somehow making them worse off. Indeed, the corporations are taking advantage of cheap labor in countries such as China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. The corporations are also paying their workers generous wages compared to standards of pay at domestic manufacturing firms. Sure it isn't $8.00 an hour, but it's much more than what they would be getting paid otherwise.
The most ironic part is the antiglobalization protesters actually believe they would be doing the peasants of Vietnam some sort of favor by shutting down the Nike shoes plant, and forcing them out of their only means of income. Sounds like some favor!
In his book, Wheelan clearly wanted to signify his stance on globalization - that it is merely human capital(
human capital) on a global scale. When trade restrictions are lifted, some people may lose their jobs…a company may shut its doors due to foreign competition. But this is just another example of a point Wheelan made early in the book - creative destruction (
Creative destruction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). To move forward on a global (or national) economic scale, we must realize that the benefits by far outweigh the costs. In lifting tariffs we would inherently cause a few problems, but solve many!
Protesters of globalization would argue otherwise, that somehow putting a KFC in Bali, or sending jobs to Honduras is detrimental to the world. The opposite is true, however. In exporting economic interests we also export economic hope and prosperity. This can only hope to have a great positive effect on the world economy.