Читать книгу Global Issues - Kristen A. Hite - Страница 41

The ease of transportation, of both people and goods, makes the transmission of diseases throughout the world easier than before. This became acutely obvious during the global pandemic associated with Covid‐19, which also illustrated the fragility of economies more dependent on steady streams of commerce through global supply chains. In the same way, rapid electronic communications and the huge number of people and goods moving through the world make criminal and terror activities more difficult to control.

Although it is true that increased production can cause more pollution, many argue that once nations become richer and reduce their poverty, they tend to clean up their environments.

A number of jobs are lost in rich countries when multinational corporations move some of their production or service facilities to less industrialized nations where labor costs are lower. It is true that many new jobs are still being created in the United States, fewer in Europe and Japan, but the type of available jobs may be changing and it is not easy for certain (particularly older) workers who have been laid off to qualify for them.

Some have argued that corporations are moving facilities to nations with less protective laws to escape the necessity of complying with stricter environmental and labor laws in their home countries. Rapid economic growth in countries such as China and India has led to major pollution of air, water, and land.

Cultural imperialism by the United States, with its corresponding undermining of local cultures, is increasing. A world traveler can frequent many cities and dine on Big Macs, fries, and shakes in any of them. The largest single export industry in the United States is not aircraft or automobiles but entertainment, especially Hollywood films.

The gap between rich and poor nations is growing. Some poor nations are being left behind economically and technologically. The shift to knowledge‐based industries is accelerating and creating an even greater gap. From 2010 to 2014, about 87 percent of people in the United States had access to the internet, whereas only about 18 percent of Indians did, and even fewer in Pakistan and Bangladesh.⁵² In 2014, 4.4 billion people still did not have any access to the internet – a quarter of these lacked any access to electricity.⁵³

Because nations’ economies are so tied together today, an economic problem in one can spread to others extremely quickly. We saw that happening in the late 1990s when a financial crisis hit Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and other countries. Economic recessions and depressions also come with the dominance of the market. Capitalism has always had its cycles, and a “down” cycle can mean high unemployment and human suffering. Many of the fastest growing economies are tied to that of the US. If the United States goes into a period of slow or no growth it will affect many other countries whose wealth comes mainly from exports to the United States. We saw this very thing happening in the world recessions of 2008–2009 and the economic shocks from Covid‐19.

We are also seeing an increase in nationalism and protectionist measures. Many nations are not so happy about losing some of their national autonomy to multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, World Bank, and regional trade organizations. While the world has enjoyed an unprecedented era of economic growth fueled by aggressively expanding the volume of goods and services traded as well as development finance that supports enhanced trading infrastructure, we are also seeing some backlash. By the end of 2018, there had been a big uptick in protectionist measures.⁵⁴ Several free trade agreement negotiations had either fallen apart or got renegotiated. And the United States and China had taken significant measures against each other’s exports.