Maccabee Haas
Globalization Debate Paper
Over the last few decades, the world economy has undergone some serious changes as a result
of a process known as “globalization.” Merriam- Webster defines globalization as “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.”1 Some common examples of globalization that relate to the
US include the mass importation of cheap manufactured goods from China and Southeast Asia and the
outsourcing of jobs in the telecommunication industry to India. With modern advances in
communication capabilities and mass production techniques, the global economy has never been more
extensive. The borders between nations have become increasingly transparent as globalization has
become more prevalent. Nations that once subsisted on domestic production now have the ability to
more efficiently use their natural resources. Many smaller nations have entered the global economy by
selling their natural resources for use in the production of common goods, which is something they
would not have been able to do before. Additionally, this has led to a higher production of common
goods and services in the global economy. However, globalization is not without its shortcomings. While
it has encouraged economic expansion of developing nations, globalization still promotes an extremely
skewed distribution of wealth, particularly for regular citizens in these developing nations. Furthermore,
this rapid economic expansion has been made possible by the large consumption of fossil fuels and
other non-renewable resources that emit greenhouse gases when burned. Unfortunately, this current
trend shows no sign of reversing. To some, this expansion can be viewed as a false sense of growth
because of its heavy reliance on unsustainable inputs. In addition, they believe that the current method
cap and trade merely encourages the pre-existing ideas of “the good life” and does nothing to move in
the direction of environmental protection.
In The Heavy Price of Globalization: Globalization and Sustainable Development, the author
describes the past and current status of globalization. The economic justifications for globalizations are
then discussed. The main points of this argument are that unrestricted markets perform more efficiently
than those with restrictions such as labor unions, government regulation, and the social practices of the
given society.2 These constraints are believed to cause nations to have high levels of poverty,
unemployment, and economic instability. As a result, these nations seek economic expansion through
the global economy in order to maximize their profit. This hypothesis has been proven by the trend in
world openness. The annual growth of world openness in 2010 was 11.23%, as compared with the
6.09% rate from 1990 to 2000.3 This growth helps explain the integration of more countries into the
global economy as a result of globalization. To further illustrate the effects of globalization, the article
discusses how the annual global GDP growth rate has shown a steady upward trend since 1990.4 While
GDP is by no means a perfect indicator of economic welfare, a rise in GDP means that more goods and
services are being produced with the available inputs. The basic principle of economics is allocating
resources in the most efficient way possible, so an increase in GDP represents an increase in production
efficiency. Ultimately, posit proponents of globalization, this will lead to both a sustainable economy and
environment. The author goes on to describe the concept of comparative advantage as it pertains to
1
“Globalization - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary.”
Soleymani, “The Heavy Price of Globalization.”
3
Soleymani, “The Heavy Price of Globalization.”
4
Soleymani, “The Heavy Price of Globalization.”
2
Maccabee Haas
Globalization Debate Paper
globalization. Basically, the concept of comparative advantage is that economies will specialize in the
production of goods/ services they can produce most efficiently while trading for other goods that they
have given up making. This way, each economy is at peak production and maximum profit/ production is
achieved. This applies to globalization, particularly concerning which countries are primarily importers
and which are exporters. Overall, this article highlights the economic advantages of globalization and
how the world economy becoming more efficient will lead to increased economic and environmental
sustainability.
While this article presented both the positive and negative aspects of globalization, it focused
on the positive economic contributions of globalization more than it did on the negative impacts on the
environment. Its use of economic trends/ data made the argument for globalization very powerful. It is
hard to deny the overall economic progress as a result of how much more interconnected the global
economy is. In addition, the detailed explanation of exactly what globalization is, how it has expanded
from the past, and how it currently affects economic expansion made it very clear. A major aspect of this
introduction (and one that was repeated throughout the text) was clearly defining globalization. This
helped enforce the main points of the discussion and allowed the author to strengthen his argument
through the effective interpretation of globalization. As someone who is somewhat knowledgeable with
economics, it is always good to assume that the audience of economic analysis is made up of complete
outsiders. That being said, the author did a fantastic job of establishing the background of globalization
before the main discussion in the article. Not only does this make the argument more convincing, but it
gives the author some serious credibility. To further the high level of credibility and professionalism
present in the article, the writing remained objective throughout the text. As mentioned earlier, both
sides of the argument over globalization were discussed in great detail, allowing the reader to form their
own opinion of the issue. Perhaps the only shortcoming of the article was that it began to stray from the
issue of globalization in the global warming section. While I recognize the importance of mentioning the
positive relationship between global warming and climate change to globalization, the length of this
section was a little long. To a more apathetic reader, this portion of the article had the potential to
decrease their interest and lose their attention to the issue. To remedy this, the author could have
perhaps included an appendix in which to place some of the graphs for this portion of the text. I think
this would have helped keep the article focused on globalization.
In Re-conceiving the Good Life- the Key to Sustainable Globalization, the author discusses how
the “Western Lifestyle” that was born from globalization is contributing to economic and environmental
uncertainty. With a heavy focus on the correlation between climate change and increased
industrialization, the article analyzed the current problems with globalization. These include the
deregulation of governmental policies with regard to the environment as well as the propagation of
unsustainable lifestyles across the world. In addition, he argues that the practice of cap and trade,
instead of helping curb greenhouse gas emissions, just ignores the issue altogether by economizing
pollution. This system is flawed because more often than not, large producers of greenhouse gases are
able to purchase rights to pollute from smaller producers. In essence, the right to pollute has been
turned into a tradable commodity.5 This gives companies the impression that they can profit even more
5
Sampford, “Re-Conceiving the Good Life - the Key to Sustainable Globalisation.”
Maccabee Haas
Globalization Debate Paper
from participating in unsustainable activities. Instead of trying to make manufacturing processes more
environmentally friendly, companies will instead try to find more unsustainable activities in which to
partake.6 As an alternative to the current cap and trade system in place, the author suggests
implementing a Carbon Added Tax, or CAT, on goods and services. CATs place a tax on an unsustainable
activity as opposed to granting businesses right to it.7 These taxes would ultimately be placed on final
goods and services in the economy. This means that consumers would pay the tax placed on these
items. Moreover, even imports that use the cap and trade method would be subject to the CATs. This
places the responsibility of paying for pollution on the consumers of the goods instead of the
producers.8 Finally, the author states the necessity of creating and enforcing a global standard for the
taxation of unsustainable practices.
Overall, this article was much less neutral than the positive article. From the introduction, the
author began pointing out the negative effects of globalization on the environment and economy. I liked
the introduction because it was concise and direct. Like the pro- globalization article, this article started
out by clearly defining globalization. Once again, this provides a solid foundation for the remainder of
the argument. The discussion of the false sense of economic stability given by a fossil- fuel based
economy was excellent because it brought up a lot of unanswered questions about transitioning to
more efficient forms of energy. One in particular was how the large countries of the world can still
ignore the environmental consequences of their economic expansion. In addition, the discussion of the
cap and trade system was very effective at showing its inherent flaws. This particular point was
strengthened when the author suggested the implementation of CATs as a viable alternative. While it is
easy to simply criticize a system, it is oftentimes much more difficult to think of a different, more
effective method. The author clearly thought this issue through, which makes him much more credible
in my eyes. I thought that this article relied more on rhetoric than hard data, but still did a good job of
showing the flaws of unrestricted globalization. However, I would have preferred a greater use of trend
analysis and metrics, particularly because the author is attempting to change the views of the
business/economic community. These people rely heavily on empirical evidence before they make any
decision, so keeping that in mind is key when trying to make them implement changes in policy. Despite
the minimal use of data in the text, the article still provided a compelling argument against globalization.
According to Forbes, globalization has three sides: the good, the bad, and the ugly.9 The good
side of globalization is the increased efficiency and ease of communication allows businesses to easily
access the global market, no matter where they are. Money can move easily across international
borders, allowing for large economic growth. However, globalization also brings new risks into the
economy, as well as increasing competition.10 Finally, the ugly side of globalization occurs when
economies try to put trade restrictions in place, which oftentimes spark trade wars. This articel
6
Sampford, “Re-Conceiving the Good Life - the Key to Sustainable Globalisation.”
Sampford, “Re-Conceiving the Good Life - the Key to Sustainable Globalisation.”
8
Sampford, “Re-Conceiving the Good Life - the Key to Sustainable Globalisation.”
9
“The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Side Of Globalization.”
10
“The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Side Of Globalization.”
7
Maccabee Haas
Globalization Debate Paper
Realistically, globalization is inevitable. As technology continues to improve, the global economy
will become more inter-connected. However, globalization should not go unrestricted. There need to be
regulations in place that effectively deal with environmental issues such as air and water pollution.
Furthermore, industries that are heavy polluters should not be given economic incentives to be
environmentally damaging. Most importantly, to truly integrate the economy on a global scale, there
needs to be a set of standards agreed on by all nations concerning economic management and trade.
Globalization will never be completely effective if the global economy is not united.
Maccabee Haas
Globalization Debate Paper
Bibliography
“The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Side Of Globalization.” Forbes. Accessed March 25, 2014.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2011/09/10/the-good-the-bad-and-the-uglyside-of-globalization/.
“Globalization - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary.” Accessed March
24, 2014. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/globalization.
Sampford, Charles. “Re-Conceiving the Good Life - the Key to Sustainable Globalisation.”
Australian Journal of Social Issues (Australian Council of Social Service) 45, no. 1 (March
2010): 13–24.
Soleymani, Mohammad. “The Heavy Price of Globalization: Globalization and Sustainable
Development...,” n.d.