Globalization: A Good Or Bad Thing?
Globalization: A Good or Bad Thing?
This article deals with globalization and discusses how middle-class Americans might be on the losing end of it. In the early 1990’s, when the idea of globalization started to be more frequently pronounced, many Americans supported the idea because they felt they would gain from the global expansion of their companies. Now many who work for these companies are losing their jobs to people in other countries who will do the same job for less and therefore, save the globalizing company money. Others are agreeing to settle for either a minute pay raise or a less than desirable salary.
The Toronto Star Newspaper in their January 27, 2007 issue said that “since 2001 the pay of the typical worker in the United States has been stuck, with real wages growing less than half as fast as productivity.” However twenty years ago the pay of a standard top United States manager has increased around forty times the average to one-hundred times the average now. This shows that globalization has negatively effected the middle-class typical worker and positively effected the “top dogs” in a company. Because of this negative effect to the typical worker, some wonder that if globalization does indeed depend on voters, how much longer until barriers of trade are adapted?
Globalization effects outside of the United States are, as a whole, positive. “In the past five years the world has seen faster growth than at any time since the early 1970’s, and in China each person now produces four times as much as in the early 1990’s” (Toronto Star Newspaper 1/27/07). Millions of people in developing countries have gained the opportunity to escape poverty and obtain a job that allows them to adequately supply for their families. So in the end, when deciphering whether globalization is good or bad, one must decide if it is better to improve the financial status of those in your country or those in your world.
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