Marenlk’s Weblog

Globalization is a very controversial issue. But what are the benefits and what are the disadvantages? And the most important question: What predominates? 

Now, I will contrast some pros and cons for you to visualize whether globalization is positive or negative. 

Pros:

–         the consumer has the option to buy commodities which are cheap and simultaneously of good quality

–         formation of new international outlets (e.g. for the German economy)

–         more prosperity for poor countries (e.g. 3^rd world countries) à faster development

–         the consumer can buy e.g. fruits which cannot be cultivated in his/her home country

–         more competition à less monopolies

–         the world grows together (more cohesion)  à easier to combat mutual problems (e.g. terrorism)

–         globally considered: more workplaces

–         more possibilities concerning professions à more chances

–         better quality of the products because of enhanced competition

–         better co-operation e.g. of specialists

–         international division of labour

–         increasing free world market

–         promotion of technical progresses: new technologies in regard to communication, information and transport 

Cons:

–          rationalizations à downsizing; particularly in industrial countries

–         fast transmission of crises around the globe

–         stressor for employees (high pressure because of intensified competition)

–         small businesses cannot exist anymore

–         economical dependence

–         spreading of (especially) western moral conceptsà cultures get lost

–         unfairness concerning the wages: employees in eastern regions get exploited

–         also the wages in the industrials states drop à threat of shift

–         raw materials become more expensive/ rarer, because the requirements rises also in newly industrializing countries like China or India

–         dangers for environment and climate: the energy consumption gets higher and higher;the worldwide transport of goods causes high CO2 emissions   à No environmental constrains for factories in countries like China

Conclusion: 

Weighting the pros and cons I come to the conclusion, that globalization seems to be necessary for the enterprises to resist in the free economy market                                                                                                                                                                          But: more and more workplaces in the west (e.g. in Germany) get lost and so in my opinion a continuing development could be chancy.  Presumably, in several years production locations are completely shift in the eastern regions and in Germany, for instance, this economic factor will cease to apply. This would have enormous effects on the German economy.

Another reason why I am not a supporter of globalization is the environmental aspect. Globalization is, among other factors, responsible for our environmental problems like the hole in the ozone layer and the climate change. 

Finally, everybody has to decide on his or her own if he/she is a supporter or an adversary of globalization. I think that this decision depends greatly of one’s individual life situation; that means if you are for example a principal of a firm, a Chinese worker or a German employee.

300 million people of the world population use an electronic toothbrush, every day, several times.  Maybe you also belong to these persons. But have you ever thought about the place of its production or how many people are necessary to manufacture your toothbrush? No? Oh, what a pity. Let’s accompany our dear friend, the electronic toothbrush, on its interesting journey.

An electronic toothbrush, such as the “Sonicare Elite 7000” from Philips e.g., is composed of 38 different components. The amazing fact is that all of them are manufactured in various countries:The parts for the energy cell are supplied by China, France and Japan, Sweden produces the special steel, the Philips supplier Integrated Microelectronics Inc. (IMI) in Manila (Philippines) is in charge of tests and so on.Altogether there are 10 countries in 5 time zones contributing to the manufacture of a single toothbrush. You see, our toothbrush has covered an enormous route before it reaches the bathroom; in total 27,880 kilometres, that means two-thirds of the Earth’s circumference! 

But there is more to it than that; also the number of employees needed for the production is considerable: 4500 persons, the majority women, of two dozen nationalities are involved. For the company Philips, the main point is that its employees are as cheap as possible; that’s the reason why they looked for suppliers in the Philippines or China. By comparison: A worker in Snoqualmie (USA) earns between $9 and $14 an hour, the wage of a Chinese worker amounts to $0, 75.Who is to blame for this unfairness? Globalization is the keyword and it means ruthless competition. 

Although Philips is a worldwide successful concern with 160,900 employees in more than 60 countries and annual sales of $30.3 billion, it matters if an ordinary toothbrush earns a profit.“If not, the department gets closed down,” says a manager from Philips.And that means a loss of a great many workplaces.In order to prevent this, there are brainstorming sessions in the offices, called Kaizen, on how to become cheaper and better. 

The toothbrush, I think, demonstrates as good as the apple the vast influence of globalization on almost all spheres of everybody’s daily life, all over the world. Therefore, in my opinion, the heading of the Spiegel article suits very well:“The Global Toothbrush”. 

First of all I typed keywords/phrases (e.g. those Mr. Donath proposed us) which have to do with the topic, in the popular search engine “google”.After searching for important and worth-knowing information on the web-sides, I copied them into a Word- document.Then I sorted out anew the most important facts in regard to our issue and formed catchwords out of the sentences.Afterwards I pondered in which way I should present my summarized search results.To make my decision much easier, I first wrote an appropriate introduction and hereafter I had the idea how to structure my article.While writing the text I translated the catchwords into English and formed sentences in my own words.Eventually I penned a conclusion to complete the article and to return to the primordial question whether an apple is a symbol of globalization or not. 

On balance, I am quite satisfied with my working method. I used it as usual for these kinds of tasks and I think again that it is use-and helpful to do it like this. This way of working on tasks facilitates to get quite quickly a general idea of the topic and to concentrate on relevant information.Furthermore it prevents, that you, by mistake of course, take over constructions out of the internet because it’s up to you how you formulate you sentences out of the catchwords.