Globalization

Globalization is a concept with many differing definitions. Globalization is

a process which entails the free movement of capital, goods, services and labor

around the world. Globalization is the massive control of the world's economy by

big business, this control transcends the boundaries of state and country. This

transcendence across countries makes the subunits of the economy decompose

and depend on the larger companies with a controlling interest in most of the

capital within a given economy. These companies then form global constituents,

they then have a control of a large volume of capital within many countries. This

global control of capital comes through the deindustrialization of larger economic

superpowers to third world countries for economic gains of these companies.

Seeking lower wages and a large unskilled labor force, companies find it in third

world countries. These are concrete examples of global companies seeking

wage reductions on an international scale. This migration causes a

deindustrialization for the larger countries and a industrialization in these

developing countries. In a curious fashion they tend to confirm the Marxist view,

long thought out of fashion, that the working classes would be kept at subsistence

level. Reebok Shoes, and other footwear giants, are forever shifting their

manufacturing base to lands of lower wage scales. (This is more easily done in

that industry than would be possible in steel or automobile manufacturing.) From

New England to the American South and on to the American colony of Puerto

Rico, thence the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and Thailand -- until the annual

wages of the factory are less than the remuneration paid to the basketball star

paid to advertise the final product. No, globalization does not mean "workers of

the world unite". Joan E. Spero, Under Secretary of State for Economic,

Business and Agricultural Affairs stated the issue at hand was one of a

formidable size, "Capital now moves with startling speed around the world.

Each day over $1 trillion is traded in a global foreign exchange market that never

closes. Technological advances in computers and telecommunications are

paving the way for a new information-based economy." The capital within this

globalized economy is not situated as one might have first assumed. The capital

is concentrated within the upper management and within the boundaries of the

company itself. The growth of the American economy in particular is in no way a

direct reflection on the wages and standard of living for most American workers.

Large companies set up manufacture of products in developing countries,

exploiting the economic need that is present there. Then these companies take

this product from this country and bring it back to places like the United States to

be marketed. The economic benefits are then reaped by the company. The

product was manufactured in this third world country where they were paid small

wages and in horrible working conditions. Then the product is taken to the

United States where is sold to the American public who played no role in the

manufacture of the product thus their purchase in no way supports the circulation

of capital within the United States economy and is given specifically to the

company. The company then takes the capital and reinvests the money into the

company and in foreign industry and the money is not recirculated within the

economy that created it. This theory of capital flight is what produces the

economic growth of the economy as a whole but the workers and middle class of

that economy do not see that growth. The middle class is becoming less and

less necessary within the globalized economy. The skilled worker is not

necessary due to technological advancements and the movement of industry

from the United States to developing countries. The developing countries are

used for their large and willing unskilled worker population. The need for specific

talent and training is becoming more and more necessary within countries such

as the United States. This creates an international division of labor within the

global economic market system.

The labor market has changed dramatically in the past three or four

decades. The unskilled labor work force has shrunk over the last few decades,

this