Globalization: is it good or evil?

Depending on how you are affected by globalization, you may have a different take on globalization.  If you have lost your job because it was outsource to a foreign country, obviously, you will think of globalization as evil.  However, if you are on the receiving end of globalization, it’s a great thing.

My take on globalization is that, whether you like it or not, it is happening.   There is little you can do to prevent it from happening.  It has been occurring throughout the history of human beings as we seek to explore, control, and benefit from new territories around the world.  For over a half century now, American corporations have spread all over the globe seeking for new markets or sources of cheap labor.  This simultaneous creates new jobs at the same time making current jobs obsolete.  The world is changing and you must also adapt to the changing world to stay in the game.

We have gone through many paradigm shifts in the past.  The current one we are in right now is the creation of the internet.  As Thomas Friedman pointed out in his book, The World is Flat, one of the forces that flattened the world was when Netscape, the internet browser, decided to go public.  By going public, it created the culture of web browsing for the general public.  “Netscape went public on August 9, 1995, and the world had not been the same since!” (56). 

The prior paradigm shift before the internet, some would argue, was probably the invention of the railroad.  Like the internet, the railroad changed our lives by connecting us to people the world.  Distance was becoming a zero factor.  Obviously, with every paradigm shifts, new job opportunities are created as well as old jobs are lost.  It is the way the world works.  The world is a very dynamic place as it is always constantly changing.  You either change or adapt to it or else you will fall behind.