Positive and Negative Results

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 546.

Key terms

1.Match up the words on the left with the definition on the right. Give the Russian equivalents.

Think ahead

1. What are the benefits of globalisation?

2. Are there any the dangers of globalisation? What are they?

Text 10.3 Scan the text and decide what advantages and disadvantages of globalisation are important for you.

The world is a single place and globalisation does nothing but encourages interaction between different people from all over the planet, bringing them closer than before.

There are many advantages of globalisation. First, goods can now move from one part of the world to another at great speed. Free trade, global media, free movement of ideas, flexibility, ease of communication, or environment concern they are now all possible due to globalisation. The global village, where all people work together towards a common goal, may become reality.

Globalisation has many effects on the countries and the people of the world. Movement of people, goods and ideas is done less expensive and at a faster rate than ever before. Now, access to different goods and items is possible due to the cheap transportation means. It does not matter that one person lives in Alaska and another in New Zealand, they can now talk to each other simply by logging on to the Internet. Climate changes are no longer discussed by several powerful people, the issues are in everybody's hands. Criminals can be brought to justice in front of international courts, and laws can be integrated in systems that work for many people all over the world. It is easier to travel from one corner of the world to another, to exchange ideas, or to influence and be influenced by values that are different from yours. Understanding and tolerance are now highly valued, as we begin to be able to know each other, without any interferences. People living in the global village take part in the same cultural or sport events, such as the Olympics. Individuals can move from one country to another, without restrictions, and one can choose where they wish to live, with no fear of political consequences. Free trade is possible, more freedom is granted to the consumer and local goods can be transported to remote locations. All these are gains of globalisation and they cannot be ignored.

The developing world wins a lot to gain from globalisation. As civil liberties are recognised, trade and access to goods increase. From the profit made, more wealth and fortune are generated; lower prices, better goods are available, and the standard of life knows an increase that was never before possible. Developing nations are advantaged by such changes. It is believed that globalisation is a recipe for combating poverty and lack of products, and a source for the increase of living standards. But there are people who have another point of view. They claim that there are some disadvantages of globalisation that should not be overlooked.

First of all, it has been asserted that globalisation provides the increase in productivity and life standard of societies. Productivity indeed increased but, on the other hand, it can be seen that the population of the world is rising rapidly, even uncontrollably, and more people mean that there is a need for more products, too. As for the standards of life they are really a lot better as there are more machines and systems invented in developed countries supporting the whole world. However, there is another side of the facts. Globalisation causes the poor citizens to have more requirements. Secondly, cultural intermingling is enlarging with globalisation which lets the people from all over the world be able to communicate easier. On the other hand, sharing traditional behaviours cause them fade as boundaries are disappearing.

The most important disadvantage of globalisation is the increasing number of loafers. After the industrial revolution, industry developed in some particular countries. Because of that, these countries became powerful industrial states. But in the other countries unemployment rose because of a decrease in production. Another reason for an unemployment rise is that less manpower is needed.Many workers became suddenly unemployed and could no longer compete with machines which only require relatively limited work to produce more products than a single worker.

Another major damage of globalisation is that some cultures are getting lost. The cultures of the countries that have more economic power are more dominant than others. Wealthy countries produce many things that can affect cultures, for example, clothes, movies and technologic products. While the global community is increasing, more and more people have become ignorant about social, ethical and moral values which are various in definite groups. Therefore, globalisation damages small cultures which are at risk of being extinct.

The final significant effect of globalisation is difficulty of competition. With globalisation, trade between the countries has been started to remove limits. Therefore, business requires being in a more rigorous and challenging competitive atmosphere to maintain continuity and development. Rising of monopoly companies and difference in production costs are the main effects of this hard competition in business. As it was pointed at the Global Policy Forum, undeveloped countries choose to use foreign capital for their improvement, however, it worsens the equality and stability instead.