Essays on Globalization

The term globalization came around in the 1960s, which is when economists began to give a name to what “the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets” meant. Globalization comes from the erasing of barriers between national economies to encourage the flow of the market. Globalization has been around even before the emergence of the term with the first example being the discovery of the Americas in 1492, which only accelerated the process even further. Globalization only exploits the foreign labor markets that mass production companies decide to use for their own capital gain, their workers that decide to provide for their families because there is no other option than to work for these people for a wage that is not livable by any means, and the alarming inequality that globalization has been able to preserve for centuries.

Many economists along with politicians and huge corporates view globalization as this holy grail. Many view globalization as an economic booming process that is purely driven by investment along with trade. People who view globalization as this holy grail often claim that bigger free-market economies allow for smaller developing markets to prosper and be able to raise their standard of living. People begin to view the world as compressed in culture, politics and other examples, they see the blurring of trade borders as a way for these countries to develop such as western economies have, with job creation, companies beginning to compete in the global market, and overall, lower the price for consumers. Supporters begin to see this as a way for labor to move freely from any country and create labor as its own market. Opponents of globalization see the cons in the exploitation of poor countries along with their labor. The rich get richer while the poorer get poorer. Mass production companies take their production to these developing countries to cut costs, since many of these countries offer labor for really cheap rather than to keep production in their own countries, these companies begin to take their production elsewhere for low wages for the workers. The workers often are women, usually young women or mothers who are the sole earners in their families. This only leads into the issue of inequality later. These women work long hours for minimal pay that by no way is a livable wage for one person, let alone for a family.

Many of these women are not cared for and are often stuffed into these shoddy factories that do not meet any regulations that can be deemed as healthy. These women cannot find other higher-paying jobs since these jobs are viewed only for men, for experienced men. The idea of patriarchy still exists in many of these countries, it brings along this idea that women cannot be sole providers for their families, that they have to settle for little to nothing paying jobs because there will never be anything else available for them. They begin to believe that these jobs are the only opportunities available for them and are the best things that can come their way.

Since the start of “globalization” can be traced back to the discovery of the Americas, Cristopher Columbus, the “grand discoverer of these lands”, is an example of the white male savior, which has been seen throughout history countless of times. Columbus is credited by many by being the one to bring European culture into the Americas. With this there are also many who discredit Columbus for not discovering anything in the first place. Columbus’ prime objective was to find India, which was more accessible than the Americas.

Columbus being an inadequate Spanish male, was not able to navigate himself to the place he originally wanted to go. Once Columbus arrived in what he believed to be India, he proceeded to call the indigenous people on the lands ‘Indians’ which can be guessed as to why the term still is used to call Native Americans as such when they should not be called Indians since it was not India. Columbus's achievement in coming to the Americas, only brought along European diseases, while Columbus was able to exploit the natives for his own gain, for the gain for the Spanish King and Queen. This is an effect of globalization, the exploitation of people for gain. Columbus can be compared to a top-leading economy like the United States or Europe while Natives can be compared to the foreign labor markets that these top leading economies decide to use for their capital gain.