Position Paper: The Contribution of Globalization to Sustainable Prosperity

by iliy1 (student)

International Baccalaureate Business Studies

The Contribution of Globalization to Sustainable Prosperity

As citizens of this country and this world, we may be asked the question “To what extent does globalization contribute to the sustainable prosperity of all people.” Many people will not be able to give you an answer, some may give a vague explanation of globalization or sustainability that in fact has nothing to do with the topic being spoken of. This shows how much we are unaware of the world we live in today. As responsible global citizens, we must be aware of events occurring around us to a broader level. I believe that all people should be knowledgeable and have a deeper understanding about the situation of the global world they are living in. If this happens, people may have a better understanding of how to take control and aid those in need and environment leading to a society with sustainable prosperity. This should be a prosperity that does not compromise the well-being of the future generations. Globalization is leading to many of those in higher power to take more than they should because of greed. Slowly they have started to ignore the needs of others in order to fulfill their desires. In order to achieve sustainable prosperity for all generations we as individuals, communities, transnational corporations, and governments must take the consequences that come with our actions and right them. Globalization is taking a huge toll on the way we treat the world around us, but we should not let it influence every decision we make and every action we take.

A common phrase people say is “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” This is especially true for the greedy people in society who chose to make decisions based on what will benefit themselves but not even consider how others will be affected. Globalization has broadened the trade network and has enabled certain individuals to obtain more wealth. It is human nature to want more than what we have, to never be fully satisfied. When they are already wealthy, they slowly want more and more wealth. This leads obtaining more goods than they need, to sell more and acquire more money. If we cannot limit ourselves, we will run out of raw material. Whatever we take we must replace. Numerous logging companies are now pressured to replant saplings in the deforested lands to help sustain the natural order. If we did not do this, oxygen levels will go down, along with pollution (CO2) levels rising to the point where many people start to develop illnesses. For this type of situation, globalization would have been the downfall of a healthy environment. It would have been globalization that leads to business becoming extremely competitive and the high demands of the consumers worldwide. This is not sustainable prosperity, and though a minority of the world is taking action and petitioning and rioting for the logging companies to be more considerate of the environment and stop deforestation, this could have been prevented. Transnational corporations are always looking for the cheapest products, and they can easily acquire these by taking them from third world countries, or developing nations. In the Amazon forest, there are hundreds of trees being cut down by the second. The Amazon rainforest is our biggest oxygen producing forest, without it, the buildup of greenhouse gases will increase rapidly. There are many consequences following the deforestation of forests worldwide. These are consequences that the CEO’s of logging companies have failed to see, or are ignoring, because they have been blinded by their greed for money and power. This is a change that we must make, us as global citizens. As Mahatma Gandhi one said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

This is a preview of the whole essay

Speaking of transnational corporations, many COE’s make a wonderful public image for their company, but behind the well-built propaganda lays many lies. It is natural in business for companies to deceive and lie to their consumers to earn their loyalty and trust. To them, keeping their stock up, or money flow consistent is their main goal. Saving money by using cheap labor and low quality goods is what they look for. Even in a fully developed nation, Wal-Mart still makes a statement. This company has no workers union, thus leading to their workers being paid minimum wage and having absolutely no health care benefits. Instead, this money that is saved goes to paying for 24-hour Anti-Union hotlines, Anti-union camera packages for every store, undercover spy vans, and rapid response teams with a private corporate jet. In total this is about $7,100,000. I don’t think this is a very good way to spend the money which could have gone to helping a workers family who needed those few extra dollars. This is not sustainable prosperity, this is just a waste. To this company, the money spent on preventing unions is money well spent, as long as they are consistently earning money. However, this is not all transnational corporations do not concern themselves over. The environment is a huge factor that a majority of monopolies and worldwide corporations do not take into consideration. Shipbreaking, which is now a huge industry in Bangladesh, is literally killing off the workers and the environment, but the heads of these companies don’t care. It’s not as if they will have to pay compensations for every worker who dies or is injured from one or more of the thousands of safety and environmental hazards in the work area. In fact, they do not even have a proper work area. It is just a beach that a ship is place upon, and from there is where another devastating problem occurs. I understand that this new industry is bringing in a huge profit for the country. The local people go to the ships and take items they can sell like; toilets, sinks, pumps, small engines, lifeboats, furniture, batteries and anything else that could be sold for money. However, can they not understand that the ships are polluting the waters so badly that only years of treatment could get it close to its natural condition? Even though these local people have not been fully educated, they should be able to see that the sea water around the ship is littered with garbage, shards of metal, oil, and other toxic miscellaneous fluids. We, as global citizens, should be aware of our surroundings. It is us that have the power to stop these kinds of things from happening. The people of Bangladesh and other unsafe shipbreaking areas should be aware and make efforts to make this industry more environmentally clean and less hazardous. We, the people who know about what is going on in these countries, should be making efforts to stop the unjust labor and the ever growing amount of polluted water and land. It is the people who are now responsible for taking charge of these problems as the government of India wouldn’t dream of interfering in fear of losing this ‘great’ industry. This is the perfect example of a government not looking far enough ahead into the future to see the effects of the contamination from the ships. This is obviously not sustainable prosperity, but a temporary plan soon to bring major setbacks.

Governments are a complicated topic. They have certain motives in mind that would benefit the country and its’ people, yet behind the good will, there always seems to be a hidden objective. I believe there may be many reasons for them to have this mindset like greed, power, good public image, and other factors all to do with benefiting themselves. Globalization is just a contributing factor to speed up the process of gaining whatever it is they are after. Cleaning up the land around the oil sands? If you really thought it was because the government actually cared about the health of the environment and people, enough to tell the companies to ‘take action’, let me tell you a different view. I believe it was done to get the citizens off of their backs, so that we continue to support this industry. If the people of Canada were to suddenly go against the oil sands, businesses would be forced to close and there would be huge riots everywhere. To keep such events from occurring, the governments use this “caring citizen” act to earn peoples approvals. The world may be bad talking Canada about how their oil is produced, but if the citizens support the idea, than who is to stop the companies from continuing to gain money. Furthermore, if the companies continue to produce oil, the world will continue to buy it. Every country who criticizes Alberta’s way of accessing oil, are being hypocrites if they also purchase it. Governments seem to shine bad light upon those countries that have the slightest imperfections and make it into a huge, disgusting scar. Then, once they figure that they must continue business with the said country, a whole different story is started on how they think it’s just a marvelous idea or the trade is kept a secret. These are times when globalization seems to be both a good and bad idea.

Sustainable prosperity is possible, but only when the world ceases to be ignorant of the issues revolving around it. People not knowing environmental, political, and social changes around them? That is just brutal. We need to educate ourselves and find ways to collaborate all of the great ideas many individuals may have, to bring forth a change for the greater good. This involves utilizing globalization to our advantage and spreading word around the global community. In many countries it is the citizens that define how the government will operate. Knowing that political power is simply on our doorstep, transnational corporations will be a pebble compared to the mountain it had lured us to believe in. There are a hundred different ways one could view the effects of globalization on sustainable prosperity, and this is one of them.

Sources: