Globalization and free trade in the contemporary world have developed rapidly with imminent further growth due to augmented foreign ties that continue to bring countries from all spheres of the globe together. However, while this continues to be the trend, the ability of this pair to promote a race towards the top in terms of global environmental standards is ironically on the rise. A case example is the continued health problems in terms of a rapid spread of severe diseases. The labor industry is also severely affected due to overexploitation of the majorly of less developed nations leading to the loss of jobs and growing unemployment among individuals. In addition, there is an incredible growth of homogenization, which has negatively affected many people without conscience. Essentially, the aforementioned points form the basis of the argument throughout this essay giving clear and concise examples where applicable. The basic argument is that globalization and freer trade do not necessarily promote a race to the top, as many people would argue. Proponents get it wrong by looking at globalization from presentations https://bestwritingservice.com/powerpoint-sample-presentations-for-sale.html and freer trade from a superficial level. They look at the increased connectivity and expansion of markets, as the only significant way in which the race could be promoted to the top. However, there are more negative aspects in these trends than meet the eye.
Health problems in today’s world have been on the rise not necessarily because of poor sanitation but because of increased globalization and free trade, which expose individuals to possible infections. The economic liberty to buy and sell as well as to move around defines free trade and globalization respectively. This has consequently made it easier for the emerging infectious diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and tuberculosis to spread from one country or continent to the other because the international health security is not available to oversee all the activities involved in globalization and free trade. For instance, in the case of Ebola outbreak in West Africa, it was easily transmitted among people where victims were not handled properly and because of the rapid movement of the population, it was easy for the virus to spread to not only the neighboring nations around West Africa but also to other boroughs in the world including the United States. People moving from one country to another to trade or engage in other activities have freely increased the spread of these diseases hence putting the health of others at stake. The history of globalization and free trade may be well represented in terms of the transfer of technology and increased global integration that consequently led to economic growth. However, these two phenomena are also responsible for the worldwide spread of major acute and epidemic infections including HIV/AIDS among others. In addition, globalization and free trade have negatively affected healthcare systems in most poor or developing nations; due to the search of higher payment, health professionals from the developing nations migrate to the developed nations leaving the healthcare sector in the home country in devastating condition. Besides, the global marketing of Western consumer products such as fast food has enhanced the perceptive changes in some countries leading to the spread of lifestyle diseases including obesity. In other words, globalization and free trade have contributed to the failure of the global community to move higher in terms of upholding health standards.
The labor industry in some countries especially in developing nations has been severely affected by globalization and free trade because these two global trends have seen most developed countries exploit developing nations. In many if not all developing nations, at least 90 % of companies in various industries are owned by foreign investors. Most of these companies from the developed countries tend to provide in developing nations huge pays with the aim of luring highly skilled and qualified personnel into their companies. Some even poach the employees from local companies and industries with promises to give them high pays and this detrimentally hurts the local companies in terms of loss of skilled labor that may be scarce in their country because they are notable to pay higher wages compared to the foreign companies. These countries continue losing revenues that come form their own soil because of repatriation and brain drain that emanates from the movement of their able employees to foreign countries in search of greener pastures. Another way that the labor industry has been affected by globalization and free trade is that these two factors have led to the increase in migration of people with the relevant skills and expertise willing to work for the minimum pay from lower or middle-level income countries. Because most businesses want to make profits due to lower costs of production, they find cheap labor more attractive and profitable. That is why, they prefer to employ those immigrants willing and ready to work for small pays rather than employ the host people at high pays. Additionally, free trade and globalization have attracted most educated and knowledgeable people from lower income countries to developed nations where they hope to find better jobs and better payments. Consequently, this leads to lack of such people to provide their knowledge and expertise in these lower income countries. In other words, globalization and free trade has only continued to make rich and developed nations richer at the expense of poor nations by simply draining their human resources to work in their countries.
The impact of globalization and free trade on homogenization is increasingly high. People are beginning to do things the same way because of the fact that people want to be like others in terms of what they do and what they do not. Things are becoming increasingly similar in almost all countries, a fact that continues to drain cultural diversity by wiping it out and replacing it with common culture. For instance, the spread of the Western culture across the globe is increasing at an alarming rate due to increased movement of people who copy others. As time goes by, they end up living a life that is not theirs by simply pretending to be who they are not. A lot of people have lost their cultural identity due to continued brainwashing and weakening of certain cultures that are considered inferior. This is all leading to homogeneity of traditional values and beliefs. Accordingly, this affects the way people think and do things, which is reflected in the way people begin to relate to others, and this may hamper relationships in the long run. This has even caused the erosion of moral behaviors especially among the youths simply by introducing new inconceivable behaviors that are undoubtedly destroying some societies. Ethical standards have also been negatively affected by the growing homogeneity in the world leading to increased amount of conflicts between people and organizations. Ideally, cultural diversity is natural for humankind because people are different and should learn to appreciate these differences as far as cultural practices and traditions are concerned.
In conclusion, globalization and free trade are said to impact the globe in two distinct ways including both negative and positive impacts. However, as the world is becoming increasingly integrated, globalization and free trade should be pursued moderately in a bid to improve the race towards the top of the environmental standards. In particular, the growing health problems should be examined from the global perspective by enhancing international health security as well as encouraging fair trade to preserve the integrity of international labor unions. In addition, globalization and free trade should be modified through effective policy formulations that seek to encourage diversity rather than destroying it. This will ensure that the growth of globalization and free trade does not pose threat on global health and labor industry as well as on cultural diversity. Future discussions might focus on solving the current problems that have been brought about by globalization and freer trade to ensure a perfect world in which every person enjoys the best is created. Accordingly, future discussions would be in a better position to establish the best ways of utilizing both globalization and freer trade to take a race to the top without bringing about increased environmental and health problems in the world. As the world becomes a global village through globalization and freer trade, future arguments would seek to establish the fundamental gains that individuals could derive from the increasing globalization and freer trade while addressing their shortcomings.
