You get up in the morning, waking by iPhone from America. You eat breakfast, saying noodles from China are the most delicious food in the world. You turn on the Japanese made TV, finding out new air lines opened through world. This is globalization in our daily lives.
Globalization has been the trend of the world. When it refers to whether globalization benefit the worlds economy, there never lacks debate and argument. Debate by U.N. Millennium Summit in New York in 2000 had a deep discussion of the problem. For the pro side, they argued that globalization boosts the economic in developing country, which means inequality between developed countries and developing countries can largely decrease. However, on the negative side, they argued that globalization can, in urbanized areas, actually increase inequality among countries. Second, whether the companies adhered to the principles instructed by UN was questioned. The con side accused UN of allowing blue-washing. However, according to Annan, the general of UN,“We know that some of these companies may have made mistakes, may have done the wrong things,” he told reporters last month. “This does not mean that we should not encourage them and work with them in moving in the right direction. They are part of our reality.”
From my perspective, I believe that globalization can benefit the worlds economy. Globalization has become an important part of our life. For example, food and technology in our daily life comes from different countries. In addition, diversity of culture has been promoted through various types of media in order to inform people around the world about news immediately. Under this situation, it is no doubt that globalization is essential to ones life and the worlds economy.
First, emergence of globalization allows countries to take comparative advantages of each other:“A person has a comparative advantage at producing something if he can produce it at lower cost than anyone else.” Taking comparative advantage, means that each country can specialize in the products that are the most efficient and profitable for them, ultimately connecting the world through trade. As countries trade each others comparative advantage, productivity increases, which boosts the potential output of each country. According to economist, 2006, “As China, India and the former Soviet Union have embraced market capitalism, the global labour force has, in effect, doubled. The worlds potential output is also being lifted by rapid productivity gains in developing countries as they try to catch up with the West. This increased vitality in emerging economies is raising global growth.” Also, countries began to request material from other countries, which highly stimulated the development of economy. According to Bush of Brookings, “the Chinese quest for oil would be the “perfect test” for its claims of peaceful rise.” As countries, such as China, find new places for resources, it increases the security of the industry due to constant demand. Hence, productivity and technology of the country that provides the resource will develop their technology and increase productivity in order to meet the demand more efficiently. Thus, it is obvious that globalization increases both sides of the trading countries. As a result, growth rate of GDP increases significantly in each country. According to David Dollar and Aart Kraay, “Per capita GDP growth in the post-1980 globalizers accelerated from 1.4 percent a year in the 1960s and 2.9 percent a year in the 1970s to 3.5 percent in the 1980s and 5.0 percent in the 1990s.”
Second, globalization creates competition, which is highly beneficial to the development of economics. As more and more companies good can be exported to different countries, consumers choice range widens, which forces companies to increase their products quality in order to attract consumers. Globalization serves as a great function of pushing companies to promote their products voluntarily, which eliminates the need of governments encouragement. Also, under such a stressful environment, producers automatically find the best way to increase technology in order to decrease prices, which causes a great benefit to the worlds economy.
With the boost of economies due to globalization, poverty decreases. According to Andres Bergh, Therese Nelson, “More liberal trade restrictions and larger information flows correlate with less absolute poverty.” As poverty has been decreased, gap between rich and poor has narrowed. According to David Dollar and Aart Kraay, “The rapid growth of the globalizers relative to the rich countries means that the globalizers are narrowing the per capita income gap. Moreover, because most of the globalizers—especially China, India, and Bangladesh—were among the poorest countries in the world twenty years ago, their growth has been a force for narrowing worldwide inequality.” The gap has been narrowed in two ways. First, within country, according to Perry 12/31/13, “It turns out that between 1970 and 2010 the worst poverty in the world – people who live on one dollar a day or less – that has decreased by 80 percent” “It was globalization, free trade, the boom in international entrepreneurship.” Since globalization, poor people has gain more job opportunities due to the investment and technology from foreign countries. Thus, workers jobs are being secured and they had more chances to earn a higher salary. Hence, countries GDP growth and the gap between poor and rich narrowed. Although some argue that the gap between poor and rich has been widen in some countries. However, they ignored the fact that the gaps widen because of economic growth and the richs income have boosted faster. This is the phenomena in the short run. According to Andres Bergh, Therese Nelson, “If openness leads to the introduction of more advanced technologies, or more capital intense production, the full benefits may require more skilled labor than is initially available.” Furthermore, since globalization spread technology and capital from developed country to developing countries, developing countries are gaining enormous benefit, which definitely narrows the gap between developing and developed country.
Third, globalization ensures the worlds stability and hence creates an environment that is secure for economic development. Since countries are now depending on each other for trading and developing their own economy, it will do big harm to themselves once the war starts. Under the circumstance of wars, it will be impossible for countries to trade or communicate technology, which makes economy stagnant. Also, involving in globalization adds freedom to the country. According to Michael Tanner, CATO Institute “It is about freedom — the freedom to travel, the freedom to buy and sell, the freedom to work, and the freedom to hire and fire. ”Globalization has offered the market such freedom that can never occur under governments restrictions of trading domestically. Hence, internal conflict largely decreases among globalizers. According to Tures 01, “A combination of historical evidence, modern theorists, and statistical findings, however, has indicated that a reduced role for the state in regulating economic transactions is associated with a decrease in internal conflicts.” Under the situation globalization provides, which is free and efficient, economic growth gains its position.
In conclusion, globalization benefits the world from creating effective markets, decreasing poverty, and securing trading environment, which no doubt they all benefit society. Imagine a world without foreign produced high-tech, instead using low quality electronic devices, no one would want that. Imagine buying domestic produced potatoes with 10 dollar /kg, instead of eating foreign ones for 5dollar/kg, no one would want that. Image you go travelling but know nothing about the country since you never keep in touch with them, no one would want that. Thus, globalization is a critical in benefiting the worlds economy and hence improving our standard of living.
References:
[1]The Debate Over Globalization By HREF, MAILTO,LEELA[J].JACINTO,ABC.COM Sept,2000,7.
[2]Supplementary resources for college economics textbooks on Comparative Advantage and the Benefits of Trade[J].
[3]ECONOMIST,September14,2006[OL].http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7877959.
[4]UPI,05(June 20,Chetan Kulkarni,Experts debate Chinas rise[J].
[5]Trade,Growth,and Poverty David Dollar and Aart Kraay September 2001[J].Volume 38,Number 3.
[6]Andres Bergh,Therese Nelson,October,Lund University, Sweden, Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)[J].Stockholm, Sweden,Is Globalization Reducing Absolute Poverty? World Development,2014:42-61.
[7]Trade,Growth,and Poverty David Dollar and Aart Kraay[J].
[8]Perry 12/31/13http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/12/chart-of-the-greatest-and-most-remarkable-achievement-in-human-history-and-one-you-probably-never-heard-about/comment-page-1/Dr. Mark J. Perry is a full professor of economics at the Flint campus of The University of Michigan, where he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in economics and finance since 1996. Starting in the fall of 2009, Perry has also held a joint appointment as a scholar at The American Enterprise Institute[OL].
[9]Andres Bergh,Therese Nelson,October,Lund University,Sweden, Research Institute of Industrial Economics(IFN),Stockholm,Sweden, Is Globalization Reducing Absolute Poverty?[J].World Development, 2014:42-61.
[10]Michael Tanner,CATO Institute,July 6,2016,What Globalization Isnt,https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/what-globalization-isnt[OL].
[11]Tures 01–LaGrange political science professor John[J].Economic Freedom And Conflict Reduction:Evidence From The 1970s,1980s, And,1990s.
【作者簡介】翟辰心,江苏省镇江中学高二9班。