Globalization...

[Kram41]

Your thoughts?

[Dan Hollister]

True globalization is the best thing that could happen to this planet, and every inhabitant on it.

Notice I said "true" globalization. I do not consider Nike using Chinese kids to make their shoes to be globalization. But true globalization, if possible, would without a doubt be the best thing to happen to every single person in the world.

Think of how wonderful if would be if you could travel to, and trade with, countries in Africa or Asia just as easily as we can with Europe. And if the standards of living were on par, too.

Globalization is just the same as when we moved from trading goods to trading currency. If you're against globalization, you might as well also say that ancient nations should never have bothered to trade goods with each other. It's the same thing. Every nation on this planet offers something that someone, somewhere wants - and is willing to pay for. If you want to talk about equalling the playing field, globalization is actually the best way to do it.

[Kram41]

True globalization is the best thing that could happen to this planet, and every inhabitant on it.

Notice I said "true" globalization. I do not consider Nike using Chinese kids to make their shoes to be globalization. But true globalization, if possible, would without a doubt be the best thing to happen to every single person in the world.

Think of how wonderful if would be if you could travel to, and trade with, countries in Africa or Asia just as easily as we can with Europe. And if the standards of living were on par, too.

Globalization is just the same as when we moved from trading goods to trading currency. If you're against globalization, you might as well also say that ancient nations should never have bothered to trade goods with each other. It's the same thing. Every nation on this planet offers something that someone, somewhere wants - and is willing to pay for. If you want to talk about equalling the playing field, globalization is actually the best way to do it.
I agree completely. However, it seems people say they are in favor of globalization, but then complain about American jobs being outsourced to India.

I don't understand how someone can think that someone willing to do the same job for half the price with a greater skill set should not be given a job just because somebody was lucky enough to be born in America and have the job first.

[Dan Hollister]

Outsourcing is a touchy subject for my family since the outsourcing of my Dad's job basically left my parents in a very tough financial situation.

However, there's a couple things to consider.

1) This will level the playing field. If anyone has ever been upset about America taking advantage of countries, this will end it. Intellectuals from around the world will be recognized and paid. Other countries will see their economy grow, as will ours.

2) This is no different than the dawn of computers, or for that matter, the dawn of the printing press. The printing press put a lot of scribes out of business, and computers put all kinds of people out of business. It's not the end of the world - in fact, things like this encourage growth and education.

For example, when computers became mainstream, it put a lot of people out of business whose jobs were doing work by hand. So those people were out of luck. But then what happened? Computers spawned an entire generation of high-paid jobs for people who now had to operate the computers. People had to design them, build them, program them, maintain them. And so Americans benefitted overall because while some jobs were destroyed, many more were created - and they were much higher-paying.

The same thing will happen with outsourcing. In every tech company, there are engineers, but then there are the managers, businesspeople, and visionaries that can't be outsourced yet. So while some of the engineers will be outsourced, this next generation of Americans will make up for it by producing far more managers than before - and again, they will pay much more, and all will be good again.

In the case of my dad, the truth is, it was an eye-opener. He's now trying to start his own business. He's actually always wanted to do this, but never had time, or a reason, since he had a good job. There's been recent polls that have shown that nearly half the population is unhappy with their job. I'm not saying that it's good to be outsourced. But I am saying that changing careers - even when you're that old and that far along in a job - is still very doable. If someone gets laid off, it's not the end of the world.

[lackofcolour 13]

I dont know. I think that a lot of conflict in the world is caused by nations becoming too interdependant.

[splitsecond]

It doesnt really matter what anyone's opinion of globalization is. Its already happening, and is not going stop.

[Dan Hollister]

It doesnt really matter what anyone's opinion of globalization is. Its already happening, and is not going stop.

Haha. Pretty much.