Monday, December 5, 2011

International and Global Issues


            Globalization has transformed the way every single faucet of life in the entire world. What once took months to years to accomplish, can now be done in a few clicks of a mouse. Our world has grown smaller, but the issues globalization has caused have become the number one problem we face.
            America used to rein supreme and in many ways still does. Globalization, however, has caused Americans many issues and is a contributing factor to why the unemployment rate is so high. Globalization has caused many different people from many different countries to seek the same jobs. This means that instead of just being in competition with your peers from your own country, you have to compete for a job on the world market. In this newly created hypermarket, there is no guarantee that your job will be there for you when you plan to retire.
            Congress, as well as the President, have put forth very little in the way of creating jobs. Both sides of the table refuse to come together on tax reform, but it is necessary in order to bring jobs back home. Our country has to compete in the same global marketplace in order to fuel our economy. If there are places that tax cheaper and still provide roughly the same level of quality, businesses will relocate if the benefits outweigh the cost.
            Another factor in globalization is that there is extreme wealth inequality prevalent, not just throughout the world, but especially in America. Those who have the most wealth have created more and more wealth for themselves, but essentially have taken what wealth would have been spread to the masses and hoarded it. This has caused numerous issues as people can no longer find employment and then wages for what jobs they can obtain do not match inflation, nor is it truly enough to live off. The rich keep getting richer and the poor remain poorer.
            This is a huge issue that globalization has caused. By moving jobs out of the US, we have left many people fighting for the same minimum wage jobs. Today, for every job opening there are roughly six applicants wanting the position. As a human resources member at Target, I have seen people from all different levels of income, education, and age applying for the same job because of rampant unemployment.
            How does this affect our leaders today? For one, they are going to be blamed. Everything I have mentioned has one ultimate cause and that is reliance on the government to sustain those who cannot afford to otherwise make it on their own. That number is continually growing and I have outlined reasons why. If we do not do something to resolve these issues, the reliance on the government will only continue to grow and we will not be able to sustain the government whatsoever. This is already apparent looking at how much National Debt we have. Obviously most of that was caused by waging wars the past decade, but a lot of it is still because of reliance on the government.
            What can we do today to help combat the negative results of globalization? Education should be our biggest priority. Most of the unemployment issues could be solved if those people could be retrained. Why not as a contingency, whoever seeks welfare or financial assistance from the government has to take courses to help retrain them for the new job market in careers that are in demand. It could easily be done and still cost a lot less than what has been put forth by our government today.
            Another effect globalization has caused is mass financial disruption. What happens to one financial company can affect entire countries. For example, the whole Greece issue of present has caused disruptions through financial markets in America. The reason is that most banks have a global presence and what happens oversees will affect institutions here.
            Today’s leaders need to come together and do what will help the American people the most. The times we live in are very difficult and although there are many safeguards in place to help us not relive the Great Depression, we are experiencing very similar causes to it. Debt with joblessness at high rates and extreme wealth inequality lead me to believe we will be in a much bigger war someday soon. We must come together regardless of political affiliation and do whatever it takes to get us back on the world market competitively. If we fail to do so, there are several countries willing to take our place.

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