Reconstituting Local Manufacturing and Food Markets with Increasing Globalization - Essay Example

ID No. Reconstituting Local Manufacturing and Local Food Markets: Possible or Impossible with Increasing Globalization This paper supports the view that reconstituting local manufacturing and local food market is impossible. Using relevant materials, the paper critically analyses the concept of globalization, its history and growth in an attempt to show why globalization is perpetual and irreversible. The argument posed above can best be answered by critically understanding the meaning of globalization. The term globalization is an overused word yet very few understand its true meaning. Globalization has always been defined from the narrow economic platform as integration of national economies through removal of barriers to free trade and commerce. A broader definition of globalization is the growing interconnection of social, cultural and economic systems. Globalization encompasses the processes, linkages and exchanges which are global in nature. Ideally, globalization is a process that has been gradual, persistent and self-advancing for the last 400 years (MacGillivray 6). MacGillivray holds that capitalism is one of the main drivers of globalization (62). Adam Smith, the father of capitalism and free trade held that human beings are driven by self-interest. Self-interest is not a bad thing but as a driving force behind every economic agents actions. Smith therefore believed that free market is the most ideal and progressive system in the world. Smith’s concept of a self-regulating unit is a fundamental contribution to capitalism and can help us understand the drive behind globalization (Velasquez 20-21). Each society wishes to maximize its own welfare, and that, different countries are endowed with different resources, technologies and products that they produce cost-effectively. Therefore, trade enables each country to avail of the products of other societies which gives it the ultimate advantage, because by exchanging products that one society cannot produce cheaply with products that other societies can produce abundantly with lesser cost, both buyer and seller maximize their own welfare. Invention of large sailing vessels and discovery of better navigation system made it possible for countries across continents to interact and trade. Given the self- interest and the desire to maximize profits, mutual benefiting relationship across continents was forged, and that resulted to and globalization (Velasquez 23). From the definition above, there are two key terms that can help us understand the essence of globalization - interconnectedness and processes. Globalization is a process that has gradually been taking root to become the most dominant and indispensable phenomena in modern history. We can indeed observe that reversing the trend that started 400 years ago would be impossible. Globalization as a process features all aspects of life from commercial to cultural and political factors. Brooks shows that countries formed alliances during war, people migrated to other continents, and migration, trade and political circumstances led to social interdependence. Although language was thought before as a barrier to global exchanges, the highly efficient globalization trends prove the opposite. The issue of interconnectedness revolves around formation of mutual beneficial relationship between individuals, societies and nations globally. Brooks (12-15) traces the inception of global social interconnectedness using Vermeer’s paintings of the 17th century. The author shows how human beings, in an attempt to enhance their material welfare set sail across the seas to look for better lives. Evidently, the paintings tell the story of global interconnectedness. For example, we can observe from the painting of the military man talking to a girl (cover page) that his dashing hat was made of beaver hut from native America, while another painting had large a Chinese porcelain. As Brooks (72-77) clearly shows, interdependence was manifest even as early as the 17th century as shown in the diversity of sources of items depicted in Vermeer’s paintings. Brooks meticulous accounts of the journey of those products was a clear indication of the inception of a shrinking of the world to become a global village. The paintings created by a humble Dutch painter who had never left his hometown showed that intercontinental trade led to import and export of such commodities into the painter’s hometown. The invention of better communication systems, internet and computer technology, and better mode and forms of transportation have further contributed to shrinking the world and which reduces it to a global village (MacGillivray 57) Furthermore, Rivolli (200-215) further lent to the understanding of the level of interconnectedness in modern day. In her book, she tells the story of the origin and travels of a T-shirt. Her journey critically shows the level of social interdependence and how the global system is economically intertwined. For example, in her journey, Rivolli (250) found out that cotton T-shirt travels in almost all continents, cotton is harvested in Texas, shipped to a factory and processed in Asia, transported back to the US for sale as a finished product. The same T-shirt is finally donated to poor countries as second hand clothes, and/ or to be sold in east Africa. Then, the decisions of the U.S government to subsidize cotton farmers in Texas – in a bid to make their products competitive – leave the farmers in poor countries of Africa in a worst condition. Essentially, it is important to observe that while each society attempts to further their own interests, its condition is intertwined with other societies. While rich countries benefit a lot from globalization, poor countries cannot survive without it (Rivolli 213). This argument is very important to the extent that it explains why reconstituting local manufacturing and food market is impossible or difficult to achieve. Secondly, it strengthens the argument in favor of advancement of globalization in the world today. As long as the rich are getting richer and poor countries dependence on global trade persists, both players will be unwilling to change the setting in local manufacturing. Capitalism has become the most dominant system. Therefore as long as society is driven by profit maximization, multinational companies will always set up companies in countries with cheap raw material or cheap source of labor or both. Specialization will always force societies to trade with each other and economic globalization will never give localization of production and consumption can never be reconstituted (MacGillivray 123). Moreover, the growing trend in societies in producing or manufacturing only specific products would lead them to no recourse but to import those which they do not have. India and China have been producing cheap textile and garment products. Importers in the Philippines preferred to import these products that lead to the bankruptcy of local textile producers and ultimately caused their closure. Thus, the local manufacturers were unable to reconstitute the textile industry due to competition and increased globalization. In conclusion, globalization is inevitable due to the level of interconnectedness and interdependence of societies in the modern world. Reconstitution of local manufacturing can indeed lead to higher levels of self sustenance but history has proven that it is impossible for a country to close its economy. Technological advancement has led to increased competition which has driven prices and wages down. Therefore, rich economies will continue to advocate and campaign for globalization by making it a perpetual and self-advancing system. Works Cited Brook, Timothy. Vermeers Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World. London: Bloomsbury Press, 2007. MacGillivray, Alex. A Brief History of Globalization: The Untold Story of our Incredible Shrinking Planet. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006. Rivoli, Pietra. The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Market, Power and the Politics of the World Trade. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2005. Smith, Mark K. Globalization and the Incorporation of Education. Informal Education. 3 November 2005. Web. 23 August 2011. . Velasquez, Manuel. Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases. Pearson, 2001. Read More