Does anyone know what globalization is? Globalization occurs when a company that makes a successful product decides to expand its industry to other nations. If a company decides to sell its product in another country, that company will generally see very good monetary results. When a big corporation makes this decision, those countries will see more jobs opening up in factories, they will receive all the benefits of being a part of the global industrial community, and the income of their country will generally increase. These benefits, however, do not make up for the fact that globalization keeps the rich people rich, takes jobs away from people who need them, exploits the indigenous people of underdeveloped nations, and will eventually lead to the earth’s destruction.

Some people will say that with globalization, products will become cheaper because there will be more people to consume them. These people fail to realize that products are only costing less because the company is paying its workers less. In countries like the United States, this is basically impossible because of minimum wage laws, but in most underdeveloped countries, a company can pay a worker in their factory as little as a tenth of what an American worker makes, and he will be very pleased. This leads to jobs being outsourced and good, hardworking people losing their employment. If a company had the choice of making a hundred dollars a day verses a thousand dollars a day, why would they even think about making less money? Any company can outsource their jobs, and for those of you who are skeptical, consider this: Career Launcher is a company based in India that, through the internet, has teachers tutor children thousands of miles away for approximately 20% of what the average tutor makes. This stands to reason that the job of a teacher can be outsourced if the government decides to implement this idea in classrooms. If teachers can be replaced, than who could be next?
Large companies like Disney and Coca-Cola started off very small and moderately successful. With proper business planning, these small companies expanded into massive worldwide corporations, worth billions of dollars. They became such world powers by moving to a small city, making a deal with a local government, and building their own stores. The problem with this is that these stores replaced other buildings that people had jobs in. Now, because of globalization, these workers have no where to work, except at the newly opened factory. These indigenous people are exploited by large companies, who pay them pennies, but turn millions in the profit of the worker’s pain. Also, the creation of these factories has increased the problem of global warming. These corporations won’t only be the downfall of the native peoples of third-world countries, but could very well be lead to the end of mankind. In addition, when a big company like Wall Mart moves into another country, the natives have no reason to shop at local stores that charge more for their products. Local businesses eventually lose customers and have to close down, giving Wall Mart a monopoly of the business in that region.

A teacher in this school once said that Wall Mart does more for people in China than the reciprocal. He said that Chinese workers beg for jobs in Wall Mart, and that they are lucky to get them. Though the teacher who said this is inept that doesn’t stop the fact that many of you probably believe what he says. If I may elaborate on the subject: people in China beg for jobs at Wall Mart because they offer higher wages than they would get, working on the land. However, the reason that Wall Mart is so interested in China is because the Chinese government exploits their workers and does not even offer them union protection. When asked about a union, a worker replied with a look of confusion, and said that she wasn’t sure of what a union did, and "you'd have to ask our managers about that". Imagine a country so corrupted by the ruling class that a worker doesn’t even know what a labor union exists to do. These poor people could be working as little better than slaves, but not know it; they just remain content that they have a higher paycheck.

Some people will say that Globalization will eventually unite the world into one large company, with everyone profiting. The thought process that was put into this idea was the same that Stalin and Lenin used when devising a Communist economy for Russia. The idea is that everything will be cheap and everyone will benefit. This is flawed, because it will be the heads of the major corporations of the world who really see the benefits of this economy. The people who argue for this plan aren’t arguing for equality for all, but equality for some, and financial ruin for others. The world cannot be completely united unless everyone in it is making the same amount of money as everyone else. Until a plan is devised to do this, those who argue that globalization will bring world unity don’t have a leg to stand on.

Globalization doesn’t only economically devastate the lives of indigenous people who live in third-world countries; it also can destroy the social structure of these places. If a city, just discovered east of Cuba, was found by the United States, it is almost assuredly true that our corporations will try to expand onto that tiny island. Never mind that that city has survived on its own, without any contact from modern civilization in its entire history of existence, these people would serve wonderfully as slaves to the U.S.’s economic machine. This doesn’t only hold true for the United States, or even just the Western nations, but any company who would be looking to expand its market. They wouldn’t care that the native people’s culture is being encompassed by McDonalds, Sony, and Fox News, and that they are loosing their self identity. All that is important to large corporations is making as much money as possible.

Conclusively, globalization is a major problem for the world today. It is unfortunate that the next generation who will come into power, Generation Y, has been raised without morals. Most of us do not see the dangers of expanding industry and the harm it does not only to people all over the world, but also to the world itself. It is unfortunate that our generation has been raised with the yuppie mentality, with our only goal of getting everything we want, regardless of the price. It is also too bad that some of the people who raise us are so blinded by this idea, that they can see and understand the problems of globalization, but have convinced themselves that everyone who thinks that globalization is negative is simply too stupid, or too ignorant, or even too “jealous”, to quote a dean of my school, to think otherwise.