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Introduction
Globalization is described as a “trend away from distinct national economic units and toward one huge global market” (7) Globalization is a hot topic right now, and it seems like almost everyone has an opinion on whether globalization is a positive or a negative trend. Those who believe it is positive say that globalization will lead to peace and prosperity world-wide, while those who feel negatively think globalization will lead to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. There are many dimensions to globalization such as environmental, agricultural, political, and labor issues. This paper will focus mainly on the economic forces behind globalization and how it affects labor in different parts of the world. I will discuss the pros and cons of globalization with respect to labor, and describe my position on this issue.
Globalization Overview
The economic forces behind globalization include rising trade and investment flows, greater labor mobility, and rapid transfers of technology. ... (4) The basic economic forces have so far outweighed the political efforts to slow globalization. ... Just like other commodities, labor has started to flow more freely between countries. Therefore the effects of a highly educated Asian population, the lower costs of production in less developed countries, the demand and supply of less-skilled workers, and so on, all play a role in how labor is utilized and how it effects the labor situations in different countries. Raymon Vernon, who anticipated the product life cycle in the mid 1960s, argued, “the high cost of US labor gave firms an incentive to develop cost-saving process innovations. ... When this occurs, cost considerations play a greater role, and costs like labor become significant. ...
Many of the anti-globalization protests have to do with the theory that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. ... However, this trend cannot only be attributed to the higher demand for skilled labor, but also due to the lower wages of unskilled workers in other countries. ... A skeptic of globalization could therefore claim that that globalization has made the United States a even more segregated nation with the educated workforce getting richer and the less-skilled workers getting poorer. While this is the case when we look at real income globalization has also contributed to better use of resources, which ultimately has made products more affordable to the consumer.
Most economists support globalization because it raises the income of people worldwide. ... Globalization will improve the lives of everyone because it will lead to more efficient use of resources. ... (2)
Globalization also makes it harder for governments to have high tax rates because companies and individuals will move to find lower tax rates abroad. ... (4)
Lower Wages and Exporting Jobs
Globalization has also attributed to the fact that all types of work can now be done somewhere else. ... The intellectual property rights of companies are more at risk today, which has inadvertently affected the labor creation.
Approximate Word count = 2402
Approximate Pages = 9.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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