Social Problems and Globalization
Social problems hinder the harmonious progressions of day to day interaction in and between the members of a community. These problems are issues and situations that do not necessarily agree with the ideals, perceived norms and expectation of that particular community. They can originate from and individual deviating from society’s norm, like publically admitting that the individual is gay in a conservative society, or a mass scale shock, as the sudden rise in unemployment rates, during a recession, would have and has had before. Previously, as societies were generally secluded from each other, they each had their own unique sets of social problems. But this is not very much the case in the 20th century as the process of globalization is increasingly bringing these separated societies together.
Webster’s dictionary defines globalization as, “the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labour markets”. With the increase in the exchange of information from one country to another through the media and the internet and also the improving physical ease of moving to and through most of these countries has made this world a borderless society. This has significantly increased trade and movement of demography in the world. As a result, some societies face new social problems while others seem to have alleviated theirs.
International trade has been one of the foremost forms of globalisation to take place in human history. This exchange of commodities has made resources that were once not available, but greatly needed, to certain country within reach. For example, crude oil from Middle Eastern countries to countries which do not have their own natural reserve or in the case of Singapore, fresh water, from its neighbours in Asia. Without these important resources, countries would be in dire conditions. Its citizen would have to pay a very high price for the existing bleak stock of these resources in the country. Only the rich few in the up strata of the society would be able to enjoy them and the rest, which make up the majority, would be suffering to find other means to meet their needs. This dire state has occurred numerous times during war when trade gets restricted and food becomes scarce. In these situations, the price of food becomes extremely inflated and majority of the people who are unable to afford it eat their every meal like it was their last. Globalisation generically helps to avoid the drastic lack of vital resources in any country.
Also, globalisation has made it easier for countries and societies to improve themselves intellectually. Ideas and thoughts brought up by many thinkers in the world these days can be conglomerated with ease through the internet. For example, new advances in the field of medicine in the United States (US) can easily be shared with doctors and researchers in China. This greatly reduces wasted of resources and repetitive work done by the professional. This also helps to quicken the advances made in that field as, regardless or geographical location; the scientist would be working in tandem. All in all, the time for these advances to be approved and implemented to the general public would be shortened. Hence everyone would be eventually benefiting.
Although the process of globalisation can be very useful to various societies, as mentioned above, it can also be a doubled edged sword. With lesser restrictions on movement of goods and services between countries, many corporations in developed countries are increasingly looking abroad for cheaper labour. Corporation like Nike, which originates from the US, manufactures their goods in developing countries like Pakistan and Indonesia. It is cheaper for these companies to make their goods abroad and ship them back to be sold than to produce them locally. This results to the loss of jobs available to Americans and hence has a negative dent in the unemployment rate of the US. Although this is just a small example of one company, there are many others who are doing the same and the compounded effect can be negatively significant. This shows that globalisation can also have a negative impact on a community or country.
Globalisation can be a tricky issue. Even though it has been going on since the first interaction between two societies, it has greatly increased in speed in the recent century. It has been shown that globalisation can be both beneficial and also harmful to societies. It can provide desperately needed resources to countries that do not have them and help to improve and build on worldly knowledge. Yet it can also in reduce the opportunities available to people in some societies. The hard part now is for government bodies to evaluate and come out with ways to maximise gain and reduce loss through globalisation. Globalisation is here to stay and the onus is upon us to use it wisely.
