In response to Globalization and Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat":
In “Globalization 1.0”, the most technologically advanced nations sent their killers to Africa, India, Asia, and the Americas to harvest souls, land, slaves, and resources. They also often set up colonies, or installed puppet governments to rule the natives while sucking wealth and rewarding a few cooperative elite rulers. The British Empire eventually consolidated most of this industry, and since WWII, the United States of America has taken over the brunt of the work. “Globalization 1.0” is still in effect, however, multinational banks and corporations from “Globalization 2.0” are now the driving force. Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya exemplify what may be called "Globalization 1.5."
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In “Globalization 2.0”, corporations transgressed borders and became incredibly wealthy and powerful, “flattening” the international economic playing field by becoming more powerful than many nation states. Multinational corporations have overthrown nations by force and by stealth. Insiders profit from the destruction and rebuilding of countries, such as Halliburton and former CEO/Vice President Dick Cheney’s massive profits from the Iraq War and other conflicts. [1]
Impossible-to-repay IMF loans and false promises of future prosperity have conned leaders from third-world nations into massive infrastructure projects sold by “Economic Hit Men” or forced by “Jackals.” Increased debt and social stratification resulted in the majority of these suckered states. [2]
Back home in the USA, American jobs have been off-shored, largely to China, where a massive workforce of destitute poor will clamber for slave-wage factory jobs. The low labor cost allows corporations to sell cheap Chinese goods to Americans with a deflating currency and shrinking job market. Call centers and financial firms in India and other countries service American corporations, lowering their overheads and further shrinking service sector opportunities for Americans.
Friedman calls outsourcing “collaboration,” framing it as a positive social force. [3] This form of collaboration seems to most benefit corporate executives’ bottom line. Perhaps my perspective on collaboration is different than that of Friedman, himself a multimillionaire and married into one of America’s 100 wealthiest families, the Bucksbaums. [4]
In “Globalization 3.0,” Friedman states that individuals and small groups have the power to globalize. However, what does this actually mean? How much do individuals actually benefit from globalization? And even if individuals “go global,” will it ever change the existing power structure set in place during “Globalizations” 1 and 2?
Surely, the world economy appears to have been “flattened” by globalization, but the hills of American prosperity were not necessarily plowed into the valleys of third world nations. Americans were promised increased jobs due to off-shoring (itself an oxymoron), and the present state of our economy easily refutes that. With actual unemployment rates hovering around 22% (not 9% as is presented by mass media), the United States in dire straights. [5] Yes, all of these outsourced jobs are now employing people in China, India, and other countries. But Globalization has fundamentally, or radically altered the cultures and economies of nations in arguably destructive ways.
· Does it benefit anyone (except McDonald’s executives and investors) to sell silicon and petroleum-laced chicken nuggets and heart-stopping French fries to people around the globe who have traditionally eaten local organic foods? [6]
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· Is it right that Monsanto has “collaborated” with Indian government officials to convince farmers into purchasing and planting their ineffective and expensive genetically modified Bt cotton seed? [7] Bt creates eternal dependence on Monsanto, as farmers must purchase more seed every year because the GMO product is sterile. Some 200,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide since Indian agriculture came under corporate control in 1997. [8]
· Does it really benefit Chinese farm children to abandon their subsistence lifestyle in favor of moving to cities to live in dormitories, work 18 hours a day six days a week, and endure exposure to unregulated toxic chemicals and dangerous working conditions with no job security, in order to be able to participate in the global economy of fast money, Levi jeans, and MTV? Recently, a wave of suicides in Apple’s iPad factories in China has led to window fencing to stop “jumpers”, security crackdowns, and forced “no suicide” pledges for workers. [9]
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So Globalization is here, for better or worse. How will it affect education?
In a nightmare scenario, teaching jobs will be outsourced to private firms based in China and India, where highly educated, fluent English-speaking nationals will instruct Americans via the internet on the cheap. So many Americans will be unemployed that state and federal government will justify its resort to outsourced education as a result of dismally low tax revenue. Children will flock into cyberspace for their “global education”, and to escape their “flattened” communities, and become complacent, brainwashed zombies. And eventually, America will completely collapse into a 3rd world state and China, India, and Brazil may begin to outsource their industrial production to United States!
In a best case scenario, informed teachers will facilitate a critical study of Globalization based on real evidence and not what corporate-whore politicians and media figures tell them. Enlightened students will go into the world armed with knowledge and technology, produce and consume locally, and engage in commerce in ethical ways that will reverse the negative impacts of corporate Globalization. I hope that this is the culmination of “Globalization 3.0.” Check my sources!
2. Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins;
You have provided an in-depth analysis of the situation. You have identified a number of problems with the globalized society but it is part of the progress we are experiencing. It is not right for people to work in conditions so bad that they commit suicide. That is the developed world's responsibility to work to correct this. While your analysis is beyond the scope of this assignment, what you say is important.
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