Globalization Has Destroyed the Middle Class Essay

“Without warning, they left us broke, sealed out, and jobless” (Edwards). These are the words from Gregg Davis, a former Oshawa workman, after he received notice his job was being relocated to Nashville, Tennessee. Gregg Davis worked for IQT Solutions, a call-center company based in Oshawa, Ontario. Along with 600 other people, Gregg Davis was left jobless after his job was outsourced to Nashville, Tennessee in a desperate attempt to save the company money. Today, thousands of American workers are also waking up to the stunning situation of unemployment as the result of their jobs being outsourced to foreign countries. This outsourcing phenomenon has been fueled by the recent trends in globalization, with the hope to cut cost and

Since the era of globalization, people all over the world became closer than ever before. Goods and services that appear in a country are immediately promoted by the others, as well as international transfer and communication. Thomas L. Friedman, the author of “globalization: the super-story” that was published in 2002 as a book prologue, examines the factors of globalization from diverse aspects and how it could help people better understand the 9/11 events. Friedman not only claims that the globalization brings the world closer together, but also that people are no longer bound by where they come from.

We all live in a globalized world; due to technologies being rapidly made it has driven globalization. Now we are well informed about other countries across the entire world and able to communicate internationally. Globalization has created a framework for cooperation among homelands. Generally, it has affected our nations and, indirectly we, the citizens in various ways; economically, politically, and socially, however it is a fast integration and association of various nations, which shapes the world affairs on a global level. The concept of globalization is evident in the many difficult challenges that come with it, involving our cultural differences, and the regulating challenge of globalizations. The phenomenon of globalization has affected many cultures around the world, resulting in the Americanization of other nations.

Although the first use of the term ‘globalization’ can be traced back to the 1940s, it was only after half a century that this concept stormed the public consciousness. The buzzword ‘globalization’ exploded into the ‘Roaring nineties’ because it captured the increasingly interdependent nature of social life on this planet. Earlier the concept of globalization was viewed as a techo-economic juggernaut spreading western culture and the intellection of capitalism and quashing local beliefs and national traditions. Thus, it was viewed as a ripple of Americanization. One corollary of the propagation of this perspective created fears in the minds of people, who had utter love and affection towards their own culture.

From an average American's perspective, globalization is a win-win situation for everyone involvedt. But we fail to see the other end of this situation, where lower-class families around the world are faced with troubles. In countries such as Indonesia and India, American companies purposely set up factories and take advantage of the population by giving them wages below minimum wage to manufacture their products. Families are forced to send their children to work in these factories in order to make enough money to survive. When there is only enough money to put food on the table, living conditions are poor and necessities such as clean water are not as available as they are for us Americans. In other countries such as Colombia, the drug

Why should I believe that there would be an emerging global middle class especially here in the United States? As of now the middle class is hurting every day, the housing market and income inequalities has become a noticeable contributing factor on the sluggish push for the middle class to feel the economic benefits. A recent report in the past as stated that the global middle class will perhaps emerge for the first time in history by the year 2030. However, the global middle class will be doubled by 2030 from 2 billion to about 4.9 billion. Furthermore, it mentions that the European and American middle classes will get a big blow by downsizing from 50 to 22 percent that’s a whopping 28 percent reduction in the already crippling middle-class.

Just after reading the vibrant story of Samir Moussa about how globalization has affected his life, I feel myself deeply touched about the tremendous impact both positive and negative it can bring. My first impression upon reading about Samir’s story is viewing the world as a single place where one could travel and live wherever he wishes. For instance, Samir’s father is from Lebanon and his mother from Colombia, both are living in the United States. This shows how globalization has permitted one to interact with different cultures, values, and customs. “It had become evident that we had already become international beings that really only had the world to call home”, he says

Globalization is defined as the development of social and economic relationships stretching worldwide. In current times, we are all influenced by organizations and social networks located thousands of miles away. A key part of the study of globalization is the emergence of a world system- for some purposes; we need to regard the world as forming a single social order. (Introduction to Sociology, Giddens, Anthony, Duneier, Mitchell, Applebaum, Richard, Carr, Deborah, 9th Edition).

Once introduced, local lives, culture and economies often suffer the worst of it. People’s way of living is often irrevocably altered, devastating to some as seen in Little Bee. Western media has also often filtered images and the intent of corporations in a way that sheds every situation into a civilized vs savage scenario, leaving people who simply have not been exposed to other information in the dark. The idea of a humanitarian backing has become a marketing ploy for some, using promises of charity to sell more inventory in the west, while also using these countries they have spread to as a cheap labor pool or a natural resource pool in a way that will cause unquestionable lasting damage in its wake. Not only is this damaging to the area, but also wreaks havoc on the individuals even more so. If not murdered or forced out of their homeland, they are often met with changes to their identities and cultures. Globalization cannot be considered without the implication that it is primarily rooted in monetary gain by the companies and governments implementing and proposing

Globalization is a unique process which has resulted in the linking of different national economies and local cultures into one global system and significant intensification of worldwide social relations. Development in transportation and infrastructure, as well as technological advancement promoted global interconnectedness and interdependence, having removed the barriers separating the world. Globalization is a fairly recent phenomenon, and as Fichtelberg pointed out, it affects virtually everyone almost everywhere. (Fichtelberg, 2008, p. 3) People all over the world are absorbing aspects of other cultures and lifestyles, through sharing of ideas, food, and entertainment. Globalization intertwined local and global, local neighborhoods are being influenced by world money and commodity markets, operating at an indefinite distance away from that neighborhood itself. (Franko, 2013, p. 3)

Since the early 1990’s, the term globalization has become a bit of a buzzword, prevalent in the speech of policy makers, popular press, and academic journals. It is used frequently to describe the …. . Its consistent use has led many people to a certain understanding of it most basic meaning, but it is an immensely complex concept that can not be truly understood at the top layer of meaning which is prevalent among general society. There are multiple varying definitions for the globalization phenomenon.

Globalization involves a variety of links expanding and tightening a web of political, economic and cultural inter-connections. Most attention has been devoted to merchandise trade as it has had the most immediate (or most visible) consequences, but capital, in and of itself, has come to play an arguably even larger role than the trade in material goods. Human movements also link previously separate communities. Finally, there is the cultural connection. All the individual data would indicate that we are undergoing a process of compression of international time and space and an intensification of international relations. The separation of production and consumption that is the heart of modern capitalism appears to have

In an article by authors, Lechner and Boli, globalization is described as having a different level of significance to each individual. The authors then provide a definition for globalization as referring to, “the process by which more people across larger distances become connected in more and different ways.” (Lechner and Boli) While globalization can be seen as both a beneficial and an unbalanced process, it is obvious that it has created diffusion and a greater sense of world consciousness. Interconnections across the world are increasing through the time-space compression that globalization creates. This process occurs through each form of globalization working together.

The issues of globalization increasingly dominate the universe’s life. The concept of globalization according to Robertson (1992) refers to the narrowing of the world as incentives and increased our awareness of the world, namely the increasing global connections and our understanding of the connection. Globalization is a situation in which no boundaries between the people of the world and links communities in a country with people in another countries. Globalization departs from an idea to unite the nations which is expected to be a mutual agreement and guidelines for nations around the world. Globalization is able to waive the space and time constraints to get the interaction and communication between nations can be done

Globalization defines practically all facets of modern life. The jobs available to the public, the cultures people embody/emulate, the relationships individuals engage in, are all continuously altered by the profound forces of the globalizing process. Capital, people, images, commodities and ideology transcend national borders, and information races around the globe at accelerating speeds (Inda 4). The theme of globalization has emerged generating considerable amounts of controversy in its wake, concerning economics, politics, and culture. These flows and disjunctures of globalization serve to construct particular cultural realities around the world, articulating the importance of the global and the local.