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Hi, I'm John Green.
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This is Crash Course World History.
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And today is the penultimate episode of Crash Course.
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We're gonna talk about globalization.
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This was going to be the last episode, but I just can't quit you, World Historians.
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So, today we're going to talk about globalization,
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and in doing so, we're going to talk about why we study history at all.
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[Jobs program for the Harris Tweed set?]
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Ooh ooh, Mr. Green!
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Yes, Me from the Past?
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We study history to get a good grade to go to a good college to get a good job-0:20
--so you can make more money than you would otherwise make and be a slightly larger cog
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among the seven billion gears that turn the planet's economic engine. Right?
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And that's fine, but if that's why you really study history,
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then you need to understand all the ways that the t-shirt you're wearing is
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both the cause and result of your ambition.
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This t-shirt contains the global economy:
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Its efficiency; its massive surplus; its hyperconnectedness;
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and its unsustainability.
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This t-shirt tells one story of globalization.
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So let's follow it.
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[BEST]
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[intro music]
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[intro music]
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[intro music]
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[intro music]
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[EVAR]
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So, globalization is a cultural phenomenon.
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It's reflected in contemporary artwork
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and population migration and linguistic changes,
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but we're going to focus, as we so often have during Crash Course, on trade.
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So the world today, as symbolized by our international felt melange,
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[how's your SAT vocab retention doing?]
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experiences widespread global economic interdependence.
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Now, of course economic interdependence
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and the accompanying cultural borrowing are nothing new, you'll remember that
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we found trade documents from the Indus Valley civilization
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all the way in Mesopotamia. [home of the Mesopotamians]
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But for a few reasons, the scale of this trade has increased dramatically.
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1. Multinational corporations have global reach and increasing power.
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2. Travel and shipping are cheap and safe.
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It took about two months to cross the Atlantic in 1800.
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Today it takes about five hours by plane,
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and less than a week by ship.
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[nothing beats a TARDIS, however. TARDISes (TARDI?) are cool.]
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3. Governments have decreased tariffs and regulations on international trade,
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leading to what is sometimes called euphemistically "free trade."
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To which I say, if this trade is so free,
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how come BBC America is in the premium tier of my cable package?
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To understand the role that governments play in international trade,
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let's look again at this t-shirt. [which is exceptional, you'll agree]
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This t-shirt, like most t-shirts made in the world, contains 100% American cotton.
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And that's not because the U.S. makes the best cotton or the most efficient cotton,
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it's because the U.S. government subsidizes cotton production.
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And that's what makes this cotton cheaper than cotton of similar quality
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from Brazil or India.
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But in the last 30 years, the US's share of
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cotton exports has gone down as Brazil,
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India, and Africa's cotton exports go up.
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And that trend will likely continue
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as the US moves away from its expensive cotton subsidies.
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In fact, these days it's already possible to find t-shirts
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with Brazilian, Indian, or Ugandan cotton,
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or a mixture of cottons from all around the world.
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But because the American government doesn't subsidize industry in
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the way it does agricultural production,
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the actual spinning and weaving of the cotton takes place in lower wage countries:
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Mexico, Guatemala, Vietnam, China, India, China, China, sometimes even China.
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And then the finished shirts, called blanks,
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are usually sent to Europe or the United States for screenprinting, and then sold.
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You would think the most expensive part
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of this process is the part where we ship this across the Pacific Ocean,
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turn it into this, and then ship it back across the Pacific Ocean,
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but you'd be wrong.
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Wholesale t-shirt blanks can cost as little as $3; the expense is in the printing,
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the retail side of things,
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and paying the designer at Thought Bubble who was tasked with the difficult job
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of creating a Mongol who is at once cute and terrifying.
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So contemporary global trade is pretty anarchic and unregulated,
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at least by international institutions and national governments.
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Much of this has to do with academic economists, mostly in the U.S. and Europe
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who have argued with great success
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that governmental regulation diminishes prosperity by limiting growth.
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Now, some nations-3:26
in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa-3:28
haven't been particularly keen to pursue free trade
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but they've been bullied into it by larger economies
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with whom they desperately need to trade.
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So in the past 30 years,
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we've seen all these emerging markets lowering their tariffs,
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getting rid of regulation, and privatizing formerly state run businesses.
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And they often do that to appease the International Monetary Fund,
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which offers low interest loans to developing world economies
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with the motto: Many Strings Attached.
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Now,
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whether these decreased regulations have been a net positive
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for these developing world economies is a subject of much debate,
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we we will wade into it. But not until next week.
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First, we need to understand more about the nature of this trade.
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So you'll remember from the Industrial Revolution episode
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that industrial western powers produced most of the manufactured goods,
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which were then sold in international markets,
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but you'll also remember that domestic consumption was extremely important.
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I mean, almost all early Model T's were built by Americans,
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and bought by Americans.
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But since the 1960s, and especially today,
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former non-industrialized parts of the world had
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been manufacturing consumer goods-4:26
for domestic markets, yes, but primarily for foreign ones.
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This t-shirt,
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made in China and the Dominican Republic before being imported to Mexico
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and then to the United States, is a primary example of what I'm talking about,
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but so is the computer that you're watching me on.
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Your computer was probably manufactured in China,
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but with parts from all over the world, especially Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.
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And this international manufacturing is always finding, like, new markets too.
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Like, Brazil, for instance, has a huge technology sector.
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They make iPads there, actually.
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Sorry, I'm trying to play Angry Birds. [way to set an example for the kids, John]
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But,
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what all these countries have in common is
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that while there is a domestic market for things like iPads and t-shirts,
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the foreign markets are much, much bigger.
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Oh, it's time for the Open Letter?
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An Open Letter to Cookie Monster. [from Sesame St. or death metal vocalists?]
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But first, let's see what's in the secret compartment today.
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Oh,
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it's a cookie dough flavored Balance Bar.
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For people who love cookies AND pretending to be healthy.
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Dear Cookie Monster,
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Here's the thing, man. You don't have a stomach.
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That's why when you put a cookie in your mouth,
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it crumbles up and then it just falls out of your mouth.
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But here's what fascinates me, Cookie Monster.
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I believe you when you say you love cookies.
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It doesn't matter that you can't actually eat cookies
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because where you would have a stomach, you instead have someone's arm.
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[awesome. John Green just ruined Cookie Monster for me. like, forever.]
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And that, Cookie Monster,
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is what makes you a beautiful symbol for contemporary consumption.
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You just keep eating. Even though you can't eat.
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[profundity FTW]
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Cookie Monster, you are the best and the worst of us.
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Best Wishes, John Green
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So, although die-hard Marxists might still resist this,
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by 2012 it's become pretty obvious that
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global capitalism has been good for a lot of people.
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It certainly increased worldwide economic output.
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And while American autoworkers may suffer job loss,
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moving manufacturing jobs from high wage to lower wage countries allows
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a greater number of people to live better than they did
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when the First and Second Worlds monopolized manufacturing.
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And while I don't want to conflate correlation and causation,
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some 600 million people have emerged from poverty in the last 30 years,
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at least according to the World Bank's definition of poverty,
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which is living on less than $1.25 a day. [roughly the cost of a Clif Bar]
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Americans can argue about whether absurdly inexpensive clothes, shoes and televisions
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are worth the domestic economic and social dislocation,
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but for the Vietnamese worker stitching a pair of sneakers,
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that job represents an opportunity for a longer, healthier and more secure life
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than she would have had if those shoes were made in the U.S.A.
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But, before we jump on the celebratory globalization bandwagon,
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let's acknowledge that this brave new world has some side effects.
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For instance, it maybe hasn't been so good for families,
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it definitely has not been good for the environment,
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and also there's a chance that globalization will spark, like,
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the end of the human species. [thanks for the doomy reminder, Sandy]
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But,
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we're gonna talk about all that next week.
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For today, let's bring on the bandwagon and ride straight for the Thought Bubble.
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So these days, people move more than they ever have.
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21% of people living in Canada were born somewhere else,
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as was an astonishing 69% of Kuwait's current population.
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Migration has become easier because
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1. air travel is pretty cheap,
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especially if you only take a few plane trips in your life,
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and 2. it's relatively easy and inexpensive to
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stay in touch with relatives living far away thanks to Skype, mobile phones,
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and inexpensive calling cards,
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also 3. even with increased industrialization in the developing world,
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economic opportunities are often much better in wealthy countries.
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Remittances-- money sent home by people working abroad-7:38
are now a huge driver of economic growth in the developing world.
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Like, in Tajikistan, for instance,
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remittances are 35% of the country's total gross domestic product.
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With all these people moving around the world,
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it's not surprising that globalization also means cultural blending.
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When people move,
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they don't just give up their literary, culinary, artistic, and musical traditions.
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Globalized culture is a bit of a paradox, though, because some people see culture
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today as increasingly Americanized, right?
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Like, FRIENDS is currently broadcast in over 100 countries;
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you can find Diet Coke for sale deep in the jungles of Madagascar;
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the NBA is huge in China.
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There are fewer languages spoken today, and probably less cultural diversity.
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But on the other hand,
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an individual's access to diverse cultural experience has never been greater.
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Bollywood movies, Swedish hip hop, [oh you, Petey Van Houten!]
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Brazilian soap operas, highlights from Congolese football matches.
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These are all available to us.
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Culinary cultural fusion is all the rage;
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more novels are translated from languages than ever before,
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although few are actually read;
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and in the surest sign of cultural globalization, futbol, the world's game,
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has finally reached America, where broadcasts of the
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greatest collective enterprise humanity has ever known, Liverpool Football Club,
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got record ratings in 2012. [oh you, John Green]
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Thanks, Thought Bubble.
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Hey, one last request:
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Could you put me in a Liverpool jersey?
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On the pitch at Anfield?
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Raising the premier league trophy?
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WITH STEVEN GERRARD HUGGING ME?
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YES, JUST LIKE THAT.
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OH, THOUGHT BUBBLE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. [who knew ThoughtBubblers were streakers?]
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Okay, so this all brings us to how globalization has changed us,
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and whether it's for the better.
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Assuming you make the minimum wage here in the United States,
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this t-shirt, purchased at your
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friendly neighborhood e-tailer dftba.com, [way to Lastufka a plug in there]
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will cost you about three hours worth of work-9:21
and yes, that does include shipping. [zing]
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By the time it arrives at your door, the cotton within that t-shirt
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will have traveled by truck, train, ship, possibly even airplane
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if you opt for priority shipping.
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And it will probably have travelled further than Magellan did during
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his famous circumnavigation of the globe.
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You get all of that for THREE HOURS of work;
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by contrast, a far less comfortable garment several hundred years ago
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would have cost you ten times as much work.
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But these improvements have been accompanied by change so radical
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that we struggle to contextualize it.
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Like, the human population of our planet over time looks like this.
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Dang.
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Like, in 1800, there were a billion human beings on this planet.
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And that was more than had ever been seen before.
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And we live more than twice as long on average
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as humans did just two centuries ago,
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largely due to improved health care for women in childbirth and their infants,
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but also thanks to antibiotics and the second agricultural revolution
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that began in the 1950s,
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the so-called "green revolution" that saw
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increased use of chemical fertilizers
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lead to dramatically higher crop yields.
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Of course, these gains haven't been evenly distributed around the world,
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but chances are if you're watching this,
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you A. survived childbirth
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and B. feel reasonably confident that your children will as well.
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That's a new feeling for humans.
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And as a parent, I can assure you, it's a miracle, and one to be celebrated.
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We study history so that we can understand these changes,
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and so that we can remember both what we've gained and lost in getting to where we are.
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Next week, our last week, [i know, right? tear.]
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we'll look at the many facets of globalization
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that aren't causes for celebration.
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But for today, let's just pause to consider how we got from here
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to here,
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how the relentless and unquenchable ambition of humans led to a world
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where the entire contents of the Library of Alexandria would fit on my iPhone
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along with recordings of everything Mozart ever composed.
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In such a world, it's easy to feel that we are big and powerful,
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maybe even invincible.
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It's easy to feel that... and also dangerous.
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Thanks for watching I'll see you next week.
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Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller.
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Our script supervisor is Meredith Danko.
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Associate producer, Danica Johnson.
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And the show is written by my high school history teacher, Raoul Meyer, and myself.
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Our graphics team is Thought Bubble.
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Last week's phrase of the week was
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"Crush Those Rebels."
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If you want to suggest future phrases of the week or guess at this week's,
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you can do so in comments where you can also ask questions about today's video that
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will be answered by our team of historians.
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Thanks for watching Crash Course
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and as we say in my hometown,
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Don't Forget To VOTE. SRSLY. Participating in your democracy is important + awesome.
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[outro]