Is globalization benefiting the world as a whole?

Article used: Globalization: A panacea for world economic development?http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/2738.cfm

Globalization is the word that every country has in mind now. Many believe in the benefits that one could enjoy with the arrival of globalization. Indeed, the world income has doubled since 1980, and almost half a billion people have climbed out of poverty. There are further predictions that the number of people living on under $1 a day will halved from today’s one million by 2030 due to globalization. However, no matter how beautiful the figures seem, there is a dark side to globalization- inequality within nations has widened as wealth generated from globalization are not equally distributed.

Globalization had caused the rich nations earning more revenue while many of the poor nations were exploited by the rich nations and in the end, having little growth for them. Forty of the poorest nations have had zero growth during the past twenty years while the rich countries grew on average by almost two percent per capita annually (1980 - 2002). The nation inequality causes more development in the developed countries while the development in the poorer countries remains stagnant. The country did not benefit economically and socially, the standard of living of the citizens did not improve.

The victim of globalization is mostly the developing country. Not only that their economic interest is disregarded, the richer nations relegate the labour rights protection in the countries too. Richer nations hope to get access to the developing countries’ labour forces. In developing countries, farming accounts for 30-60 percent of GDP and up to 70percent of the labour force. Hence, labour rights protection is critical for protecting the citizens’ rights. However, this is not done and social problems arise. In India, the farmer suicide has been a terrible human cost and become a threat to rural development.

In addition, the developing countries face constrains as they negotiated with richer nations for trades with them. For example, during Doha Round of trade talks, the United States proposed that developing countries would have been free to export jet engines and supercomputers to America, but not textiles, agriculture products or processed foods- goods of which the United States produces. The developing countries face limitations to which goods they can export, hence causing them to have a small market where their goods can be sold.

In conclusion, globalization does not benefit the world as a whole as the richer nations dominates the poorer ones, causing limited development that the poorer nations can experience.