World Changing Post #1

World Changing Post#1

Understanding Trade

Rebecca Tulis

When I use a certain object, I never really think where did this come from or how did it get here? Reading the excerpt called Understanding Trade gave me some important insight into the world of globalization. It was after World War II, when people decided that in order to rid the economy of an economic depression, countries needed to depend on each other for materials. Globalization seemed to have solved all our problems because supplies became more and more available.

What were most interesting about this essay were its references to sweatshops and the leading exporter, China. While Globalization seems beneficial to our society, we wonder how ethical this whole system is. Workers, in China have to work long days for low pay in sweatshops. However, some nations advertise themselves as companies who do not rely on sweatshops.

I always see cargo ships and not only wonder what are in the huge metal containers but I wonder where this ship has been on its long journey to deliver its materials. Shipping materials have proven to be successful because it is a very cheap process that can move a lot of cargo. However, environmentally the shipping industry is not a good way to go about globalization. For instance, ships could have oil spills, dump polluted water and release a lot of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.

It is easy to say that Globalization has changed our society for the better but there are still parts of it that need to be changed. Even so, if we rid the world of sweatshops or find an environmentally safe way to transport goods, trading can still pose a lot of problems. Problems that we, in a wealthy society are invisible to us because we don’t have to work in sweatshops and materials are practically given to us by poorer nations.

Steffen, Alex. World Changing: A User's Guider for the 21st Century. New York: Abrams, 2008