GLOBALIZATION AND IT'S NEGATIVITY

 GLOBALIZATION 

 by Suvankar Das

 

What is Globalization?

Globalization is the process by which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected as a result of massively increased trade and cultural exchange. Globalization has increased the production of goods and services. The biggest companies are no longer national firms but multinational corporations with subsidiaries in many countries.

Globalization has been taking place for hundreds of years, but has sped up enormously over the last half-century.

Globalization has resulted in:

• increased international trade
• a company operating in more than one country
• greater dependence on the global economy
• freer movement of capital, goods, and services
• recognition of companies such as McDonald's and Starbucks in LED Cs

Although globalization is probably helping to create more wealth in developing countries - it is not helping to close the gap between the world's poorest countries and the world's richest.

How can it negatively affect?

Critics of globalisation include groups such as environmentalists, anti-poverty campaigners and trade unionists.

Some of the negative impacts include:

• Globalization operates mostly in the interests of the richest countries, which continue to dominate world trade at the expense of developing countries. The role of LED Cs in the world market is mostly to provide the North and West with cheap labor and raw materials.
• There are no guarantees that the wealth from inward investment will benefit the local community. Often, profits are sent back to the MED C where the TNC is based. Transnational companies, with their massive economies of scale, may drive local companies out of business. If it becomes cheaper to operate in another country, the TNC might close down the factory and make local people redundant.
• An absence of strictly enforced international laws means that TNCs may operate in LED Cs in a way that would not be allowed in an MED C. They may pollute the environment, run risks with safety or impose poor working conditions and low wages on local workers.
• Globalization is viewed by many as a threat to the world's cultural diversity. It is feared it might drown out local economies, traditions and languages and simply re-cast the whole world in the mould of the capitalist North and West. An example of this is that a Hollywood film is far more likely to be successful worldwide than one made in India or China, which also have thriving film industries.
• Industry may begin to thrive in LEDCs at the expense of jobs in manufacturing in the UK and other MEDCs, especially in textiles.
  

 

What are the negative factors?

Displacements of Workers

Thanks to globalization, there are employment opportunities all over our huge world. However, most people have had to leave their families for many years as they work abroad. As a result, couples have divorced, remarried and left destitute children at the mercy of volunteers and shelters. Some children haven’t been able to meet their old-aged parents’ needs because the money they earn from their job is not enough. Lots of seniors die due to sicknesses and lack of financial and emotional support from their children.

Unemployment

In almost all developing countries over half of the working population relied on casual jobs in industries until globalization took root. The advancement of technology has reduced such employment and increased global need for skilled professionals. Majority of people in developing countries don’t have skills, while the available jobs are poorly paid due to high demand caused by globalization. Most of the people are left unemployed and unable to meet their basic needs resulting in increased criminal activities such as burglary, pickpocketing, murder and drug abuse. The rate of unemployment and poverty keeps growing as the gap between the rich and the poor widens.

Increased Lifestyle diseases

Globalization has brought in the consumption of processed foods, planting crops using chemicals to minimize the duration of growth and increase profit. In order to benefit from business, animals such as the cows are fed on chemicals that make them produce a lot of milk or increase in weight for those that are sold for the meat industry. Due to increased ingestion of chemicals from foods, chronic diseases are on the rise. The mortality rate is high. Furthermore, there is a reduction in the lifespan in the developing countries.

Abandonment of Culture

Every community, society, or nation has its values and beliefs, that is to say – own culture. They are essential because they mold the acceptable behavior of the people in a particular community. The elders or leaders ensure that the people behave in a morally upright way. However, globalization mixed different cultures. Then people reconsidered their authentic rules and customs regarding their culture as primitive. Some nations from developing countries adopt the western culture and abandon there’s own. The community leaders can no longer pursue their own domestic policy punishing citizens for crimes them as they did before because they are regarded as backward and primitive by international society. They adopt the culture which is quite strange and distant from their nature, due to such policy, people conduct themselves regardless of actual laws. As a result, there is an increased crime as acts such as rape, divorce, and domestic violence get on the rise.

Conclusion?

Regionalization can also be analyzed from a corporate perspective. For instance, businesses such as McDonald’s or Starbucks don’t sell exactly the same products everywhere. In some specific stores, they consider people’s regional habits. That’s why the McChicken isn’t sold in India, whereas in Portugal there’s a steak sandwich menu like the ones you can get in a typical Portuguese restaurant.

Politically speaking, when left-wing parties are in power they tend to focus on their country’s people, goods and services. Exchanges with the outside world aren’t seen as very valuable and importations are often left aside.