What Are the Costs and Benefits of Globalization

What are the costs and benefits of Globalization? Shanee A.

Stevens ECON220-FF4WW Professor John Edwards August 6, 2011 What are the costs and benefits of Globalization? Well I know that as we head into 2012 the American people are hoping the economy is turning around. With unemployment rates at their highest and the scarcity of jobs, it’s no wonder why the American people do not like their government right now. What was once the best place in the world to come and live the “American Dream” is now slowly changing.To fully understand globalization we must first know what the definition is: (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets.

We as Americans surely know the price of American owned companies finding cheaper labor markets. For instance, I live in Springfield, Ohio and we once had a great manufacturing company called Navistar.Well, we still have that manufacturing company here; however, Navistar moved a majority of their jobs to Mexico. This resulted in approximately 2000 people to be laid off from the company and looking for work. I know this first hand because my father was once an employee at Navistar.

Fortunately, a foreign manufacturing company Honda of America saved our family from ruin. (Hinyub, 2011) California seems to be the hardest hit by the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) losing an estimated 87,000 jobs due to cheaper labor force and or materials.Although the Free Trade Agreement was meant to help the American based companies, it seems to be helping those other countries that we are “outsourcing” our business to. Hopefully we will be able to find a happy medium for all countries to get all of our economies back on the right track. References Hinyub, C.

(2011, May 12). Caivn. Retrieved from Caivn: http://caivn. org/print/9873 Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (n.

d. ). Retrieved from Merriam-Webster Dictionary: http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/globalization