Write three reflection response in Political science at least 250~300 words.
Then, respond to the postings of a least two other students, one from each of the two threads, no later than midnight on Saturday, May 28. What are the strengths and shortcomings of the other students' arguments? How could their arguments be strengthened?
Q. Is globalization a good thing or bad?
Classmate's answer A : Globalization Is Good
Globalization should be defined as more of a good thing than a bad thing. It helps lower poverty in developing nations and also increases the wealth of countries by the increasing trade. The economic factors aside, globalization can also help impact cultural conditions and promote international understanding and tolerance, for instance, by expanding human rights.
Globalization helps countries become more economically stable by increasing international trade. Globalization makes it cheaper doing business with foreign countries by removing the major obstacles like tariffs, that usually come with trade across borders. This allows trade between various nations to grow, and one major way that reducing the impediments to the flow of free goods and capital helps countries is by allowing them to focus on the specific good and services that they can best produce. This highlights the idea of specialization. This is the fundamental basis of international trade, since very few countries are able to produce everything they need and be fully self-sustaining.
Global trade helps countries increase their overall wealth.. Because of globalization in East Asia, for example, GDP per capita has increased immensely, over eight-fold (Stiglitz, 2003). This is due mainly to the increase in exports of these economies. They have managed to develop more advanced technologies so they can become more competitive with industrialized nations. As a result of the jump in GDP, several million people were lifted out of poverty. In fact, according to data, over 200 million people have come out of absolute poverty, defined as living on less than $1 per day, over the past 20 years (Geddes). This shows that the corresponding increase in globalization is helping create better living situations for many individuals across the planet.
Less industrialized nations have greatly benefited from globalization because of higher economic growth and the increases in jobs. These jobs are coming from the fact that industrialized nations are outsourcing aspect of their businesses to countries that are able to provide services for less cost. For instance, when India provides customer service to American corporations, they are becoming increasingly more involved and intertwined in the value chain of the globalized telecommunication industry. “The experiences of India and South Korea suggest that as countries increase their levels of growth and development, their wage levels rise, and a shift from labor-intensive industry to more capital and knowledge-intensive industry is seen.” (Krain) It is clear, because of globalization, there will be more jobs and income resulting from the shift of labor and capital to countries like India that are able to generate profitable export businesses.
Globalization is also increasing cultural tolerance through the expansion of human rights. International trade and business involvement exposes developing countries to more understanding of the poor treatment many of the workers receive. This helps combat harsh prejudicial fundamentalism that is present in many of these nations. Globalization also allows local products and services that might otherwise only be available in a very limited capacity geographically to be available to many more markets across the globe. The cultural sensitivity and competency is increased in developed nations because of the exposure to the customs and traditions of less widely-known groups of people. With greater exposure of goods and services from more culturally isolated areas, greater respect amongst the human populations that consume these products increases. When respect is flourished between different groups of people, it is less likely that violent conflicts will occur. Furthermore, peace and prosperity around the world will increase.
My reply to a friend discussion :
Classmate's answer B : Globalization Is Good
Globalization is an essential component in the advancement of global success. Globalization connects many different countries and aids in promoting the trade of goods and wealth among nations. This boosts the economies of both developing nations and first world nations(Nau 350). Domestic and international economic policies have great influence upon the global economy. Financial and physical security arises among nations who trade together. Globalization helps to promote a more peaceful and economically sound world.
Trade connects the world’s economies and creates globalization. Countries who trade among each other form relationships and deals in which trade becomes more efficient and less expensive. By removing the boundaries in which trade might be restricted or heavily tariffed, the amount of goods available for a nation’s people is greatly increased (Nau 354). Access to a more diverse and less expensive array of goods allows individuals to improve their own economic standing. In globalization, the status of a country’s domestic economy directly affects the international economy. Due to the interdependence of countries economies, nations must reach mutual agreements about the control of trade policies as a way appease each other (Nau 354).
Globalization also provides security for nations who trade amongst each other. In a global economy nations aid each other when one faces an economic struggle. When countries import more than they export, they are essentially borrowing money from the country doing the exporting. This situation mostly occurs between less economically developed nations and first world nations, but not always. Less economically developed nations are able to invest the resources imported in building machinery and capital equipment to help they develop and grow (Nau 369). This situation allows the LED’s to further develop their economy and give greater economic opportunity to their citizens. Therefore, increase in wages is directly correlated with an increase in imports within developing countries (Nau 370). In 1960 developing nations paid their workers 10% of the wages an American would get paid for the same work. Over the course of the next thirty two years, as imports increase the wages paid to industrial workers producing goods for the United States rose by 20% (Nau).
Another great benefit from globalization is the advancement of immigration and the acceptance of immigrants in developed countries. Individuals living in less economically developed countries, for example Mexico, are given the opportunity by the United States to immigrate and earn wages far greater than in their original country (Nau). Although immigration policies are very controversial, I believe as the world becomes more connected the, the barriers between countries will become much smaller. Skilled immigrants are essential to the global market economy, such as numerous tech geniuses from India immigrating to Silicon Valley. This immigration flow also benefits the countries the immigrants originated from. The immigrated individuals can return home and bring back skills to help develop their own economy and country.
My reply to a friend discussion :
Classmate's answer C : Globalization Is Bad
Globalization is a phenomenon of human social development. Generally speaking, globalization refers to the growing global ties, the development of human life on a global scale and the rise of global consciousness. Countries are interdependent with each other in aspects of politics, economy, trade, etc. Since the 1990s, the concept of globalization has expressed great influence on human society, and it has gradually attracted the attention of various countries to conduct researches in political, educational, social and cultural fields. However, whether the "globalization" is good or not is still a matter of opinion. As far as I am concerned, the globalization is bad for human development.
Firstly, the globalization is bad for the conservation of local cultures. It is a reality that globalization can greatly promote the innovation and development of local cultures, but it also results in the loss of local cultural connotation and self - renewal ability. For example, some disadvantaged national languages are facing the impact of powerful language, globalization and the Internet, and their social functions are in the dangerous situation of being weaken or even disappear. Nowadays, the cultural diversity is gradually lost in the course of homogenization. In fact, the so-called "universal culture" draws heavily from American culture (McCubbrey, “Negative and positive effects of globalization for developing country business”).
Secondly, the globalization is lack of the rule of law. The marketization of countries becomes possible with the maturity environment of the rule of law. However, the international market is not under the environment of law, and it is controlled by powers. Therefore, the so-called international market is under the rule of law is impossible as long as there is no world government. Since the legislation, justice and law enforcement are all attributed to power countries, thus only the idealists to expect fairness, and only those countries who have the most ability to profit from the unfair environment will talk about how fair the international order is. Therefore, if there is not a global government, the globalization will be just the game of power countries, and it is hard for less developed countries to benefit from it (Nau, 476-478).
Moreover, the globalization cannot predict national gains or losses. It is very difficult to talk about the conditions of benefit or damage in globalization. Power countries, weak countries, big countries or small country are all likely to benefit from the process, but they may also suffer from it. The traditional China is defeated by globalization, but it also rises from the globalization with high speed. The British Empire is rise from globalization, but it also declines for the reason of globalization. Now the United States, although it has been the largest beneficiary of globalization, has shown a tendency of drifting apart the globalization because the United States begins to feel the pinch. At the same time, chasing difference is the most profound feature of the era of globalization (Nau, 454), but the globalization of capital is lack of humanity. The globalization brings intense social changes, stimulates the rise of all kinds of ideology, and it must be accompanied by intense conflicts between social groups, ideologies and even national states. It can be seen that the past globalization has brought prosperity and progress, and the revolution, but it also brought domestic wars, as well as the world wars.
In short, globalization is not conducive to the peaceful development of mankind. The process of globalization is just like people entering the city. In order to acquire economic efficiency, people enter into the city from the vastly dispersed, self-sufficient villages. They live together in close proximity, but competition is the only way to survive. The brutal competition in the market has led to the increasing number of "villagers" losing their morality and justice. They worship capitals and they openly claim that selfishness and the law of the jungle are their nature in the era of globalization. Therefore, when the vast earth village becomes a prosperous and small earth city, the "national interests", of course, become the highest standards of international relations, and force is naturally become a prerequisite for security and order. Thus the drawbacks of globalization are obvious.
My reply to a friend discussion :
