S.S.R. But this phenomenon took birth a few centuries ago when Industrial Revolution completely changed the way people thought, behaved, conducted business and lived (Rodrik, 1997). We all know that Industrial Revolution opened gates of opportunity for millions around the world. Despite the fact that there was serious downside to Industrial Revolution which involved the emergence of urban poor, we must not forget that it was due to this revolution that some of the poorest nations in Europe managed to stand on its feet and are now literally ruling specific areas of the world. While "The growth of urban slums, the concentration of new monopoly power in the trusts, and the scandalous corruption of politics made many turn-of-the-century Americans feel their nation was losing its democratic promise" (Derber, 14), it also opened doors of blessings for these poor who would have died of starvation if they had not been allowed to move. We need to understand that nothing comes with absolutely positive outcomes. There are always some negative things involved but in the end, we need to weigh the pros and cons and then decide if the world was better off with or without that change. How many of us really think today that our world was better before the Industrial Revolution, how many of us would actually want to live in the agrarian society of 17th century? How many would even imagine our lives in those times? Probably no one! This is because Industrial revolution brought with it many important and critical changes that forever changed the way we viewed the world. The freedom we enjoy today, the free mobility of capital and labor that allows skilled workers from poor countries to migrate and create better future for themselves, the easy access we have to world's resources and the sharing of resources around the globe is due to the changes that took place during the Industrial Revolution. Globalization today is mainly an offshoot of that revolution. It is nothing evil because it only facilitates natural growth and helps the natural process. "Globalization has many positive, innovative and dynamic aspects, all related to the increased market access,...
There is no dearth of examples: The world as a whole is definitely more prosperous and more healthy, with average per capita incomes tripling in the last fifty years, child mortality rates halving and life expectancy increasing by ten years since 1965. Trade-flows also increased 12-fold in the past fifty years as a result of the removal of natural and artificial barriers." (Monsod)
Globalization has thus been a highly critical force that has obviously changed the face of the world. It has revolutionized our access to capital, land and labor. We must not assume that globalization has made rich only richer and poor even poorer. This would be a wrong and unjustified charge because globalization has also allowed poor people easy migration facilities to better and more prosperous areas of the world. In the absence of such opportunities, they would have remained in one unfavorable geographical location and would have never been able to realize their potential. And this doesn't even follow that mobility of labor is costing poor countries. We need to see it from the viewpoint of earnings. Every country that has its skilled or unskilled workers moving to other countries has invariably benefited from their earnings abroad. The work they do abroad earns them much more than they would have earned at home and remittances that are sent to relatives and spouses back home only add to native country's financial strength.
References
Charles, Derber, Corporation Nation: How Corporations Are Taking Over Our Lives and What We Can Do About it, 2000
Dani Rodrik, Sense and Nonsense in the Globalization Debate. Vol. 107, Foreign Policy, 06-01-1997.
Solita Monsod, Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities, accessed online 21st March 2005:
http://www.capwip.org/resources/womparlconf2000/downloads/monsod1.pdf.
DANIEL T. GRISWOLD, Blessings and Burdens of Globalization. Vol. 13, the World & I, 04-01-1998, pp 30.
