Globlization is bad for the first world and the enviroment

                 Globlization is negitivly affecting the world we live in. Globalization is the spread of ideas, information, and capitol across the world. Communicating with others around the world has also become much much easier. If business executive in Japan wanted to have a video conference with a manufacturing plant in Mozambique, it’s just a few clicks away. Globalization can be identified by such practices as outscoring, trade, and sharing of culture. Globalization can have benefits like increased communication among nations and global efforts to increase peace and prosperity. However, its effects are for the most part negative. While the vast exportation of international goods to the U.S. causes prices for most items to go down, its drawbacks far exceed its benefits.

Globalization causes job loss for workers in the United States and other first world countries. This is because the cost of labor in in third world countries is much lower the cost of labor in first world countries. In the U.S. the federially aproved minnimum wage is $7.25 dollars per hour. However, the average cost or labor in foreign countries (specifically China) is 50 to 80 cents per hour. The manufacturing business in the United States has been hit the hardest by the rise of foreign labor. For example, plants that make electronics have had to go out of business because they can’t compete with the low cost of international labor. In the mind of big companies, paying American workers $6 more than what a Chinese worker would earn for doing the same job does not make any economic or fiscal sense. 

Additionally, globalization causes a great strain on the environment. As the population of the world increases the need for living space and farms to grow food for the population also rises. This is a problem because often vital areas like rainforests and wetlands and cleared and populated by those in need of living and farming space. As a result of these areas being populated, many species of wildlife and plants have lost their homes and have gone extinct. Air pollution is also another threat to the environment caused by globalization. As the need for more industry rises the need for more factories to produce goods also rises. These factories burn fossil fuels and emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which traps the suns rays. This causes a greenhouse effect and the earth’s temperature rises as a result. Since 1975 the average global temperature has rose .5 degrees Celsius and is predicted to rise even more in the future thanks to the carbon emissions from factories and cars.  

Furthermore, the mandates for free trade around the world have forced laws that protect public health and the environment to take a back seat. The World Trade Organization is the leading culprit of this practice. The Word Trade Organization or WTO is an organization that coordinates global trade.  An example of their disregard for protective health laws  would be the European Union’ ban on hormone treated beef from the United States. At first the Union had banned the export because it was deemed a health risk. However, when the U.S. appealed the ban to the World Trade Organization and the E.U. was forced to lift their band despite the imports being a health risk. Even worse was when the U.S. put a ban on shrimp caught in Asian using nets that are not safe for sea turtles. When Asiatic countries whose economies depend on exporting shrimp appealed the ban to the World Trade Organization, and they were forced to repeal the law. This caused the population of Sea Turtles in Asia to fall.

In conclusion, globalization causes, labor problems, job loss, environmental damage, and hurts protective laws worldwide.



This chart shows what forgin goods were expported to the U.S.A. in the year 2007. This is important because it shows how reliante we are becoming on other countries to do our work.