Globalization may be good for business, but is it good?
As the Cold War was winding down, the world was changing in fundamental ways. Cold War technology fired up revolutions in communications and transportation. The end of the Cold War lowered entry barriers and eased restrictions. Things like GPS ceased being tightly-controlled secrets. The military-developed Internet went commercial. Money moved with much greater ease; investment and credit exploded. Labor became the cost driver in manufacturing. Corporate entities tied to no single country exerted immense influence in the competition for low-cost jobs around the world. Consumer prices dropped and choices expanded. Consumers and nations racked up huge debt burdens. Wealth increased everywhere except sub-Saharan Africa. Yet 2.6 billion people live off of less than $2 per day.
So is this even a liberal-conservative issue? Is it even an issue - or is it something that "just is"?
|
Conservative Response
|
|
With the fall of the Soviet Union and the discrediting of statist politics, the world has opened up to tremendous wealth creation. World-wide wealth has doubled in thirty years. People are freer; people are more mobile; people are wealthier. There are more possibilities.
The key is freedom and information. People need to be free to conduct business. Businesses (and governments) need to be transparent. If this is the case, a global free market is the best case scenario. Here is the bottom line: if consumers are protected and catered to, investors will profit as well. Most of us are both investors and consumers, and if we are well-served in both cases, we are well-served. Government's role is to support this model.
|
— Editor
|
Liberal Response
When bankruptcy looms for Mexico, the whole world anticipates the effects. When the United States home mortgage bubble bursts, the entire world feels it. AIDS went from a local African disease to a world-wide scourge in a couple decades, a scourge that has crippled Africa's economic productivity, to add to the human tragedy. When an oil company's negligence leads to an earth-changing disaster, as is the petroleum leak in the Gulf of Mexico, there is no one to hold them accountable. When big business wants to get rid of toxins, it can sell them to poor countries. In those countries, the rich make the money, but the poor suffer the consequences from the dumping of the poisons.
These are the issues of globalization, and they are not being addressed. There needs to be government controls over corporate behavior or corporations won't behave. They will seek profit in this highly competitive world to the extent the law allows. And if the law is absent, stand by for bad things.
This takes regulation by the wealthy countries and international cooperation. Markets should be free, people should make money, and risk should be rewarded. But in this world, regulation is a must – otherwise, investments, the environment, workers, and neighborhoods are all in danger.
— Editor
|
Alternative Response
There are many victims in the corporate take-over that is globalization. The recent U.S. Supreme Court case that cemented the notion that corporations have "rights" just like people do was a blow to humanity the world over.
Aspects of globalization that include cultural awareness, global trade, and prosperity are all good. But include corporations in the mix and democracy is threatened everywhere; inequality is guaranteed; and environmental disaster will be the norm. Surely there are more Gulf oil rig leaks on the way.
The solution is to take corporations and corporate lobbies out of governing. Give government back to the people.
— Editor
|
| Author |
Comments |
NB
6/5/10 |
Contrary to what you may hear on conservative radio and Fox News, incompetence, inefficiencies, corruption and greed are not the sole domain of the government. As with governments, government agencies and politicians; corporations have its share of wrongdoers. History is replete with companies that abandoned human decency for the all-mighty dollar. As we learn more about the safety concerns that BP ignored or covered up, which lead to the largest oil spill in America's history; how can we forget that Exxon allowed a drunk to captain the Exxon Valdez oil tanker, running it aground off the coast of Alaska? As we learn more about Toyota's cover-up of their accelerator problems; how can we forget Ford's cost/benefit analysis that determined it was cheaper to litigate wrongful death claims than to spend a few bucks to make their fire prone Pinto a safer vehicle?
Industries, with few exceptions, don't learn from their mistakes. The corporations must be made to pay to "make things right" and the industries must be regulated to prevent problems in the future. To borrow a famous catch phrase, The "Free Market" is NOT free – someone pays! BP may be paying to cap its own oil well, for major cleanup efforts and for all "legitimate" claims; there is no possible way BP will pay to "make it right". Eleven oil workers lost their lives, many people will lose their livelihoods, and many more will have to struggle to stay in business, especially those in the tourist and fishing industries. Along with the human impact, the wildlife and the ecosystems of the gulf coast have been decimated – and the worse of it is yet to come. Over 20 years after the Exxon Valdez disaster, the Alaskan coastal environment has yet to fully recover and Exxon is still fighting claims in our court system.
From Wall Street to the Board Room, the government is the only entity that has the power to ensure the health and financial safety of its citizens and its environments. With globalization, this power becomes weakened. It's easy to think of companies that must comply with strict safety regulations in one country but place profits above public safety in countries without these regulations. Do you think you'd see a safety warning on a cigarette pack from an American tobacco company in any third world country? Do you think that BP should be using oil dispersants that are so toxic and ineffective that they are banned in the United Kingdom?
Globalization may be great for business, but, so far, it’s bad for people and for the environment. The governments, not just the United States Government, need to stand up for the people of their country and the people around the world. Corporate interest in government affairs should be severely restricted or eliminated. If an American company must adhere to strict safety regulations in the United States, it should adhere to these same policies overseas. America should be pushing other countries to enact similar policies to protect the employees, the public and the environment.
|
|
