Advantages of Globalization:
- Globalization lets countries do what they can do best. If, for example, you buy cheap steel from another country you don’t have to make your own steel. You can focus on computers or other things.
- Globalization gives you a larger market. You can sell more goods and make more money. You can create more jobs.
- Consumers also profit from globalization. Products become cheaper and you can get new goods more quickly.
Disadvantages of Globalization:
- Globalization causes unemployment in industrialized countries because firms move their factories to places where they can get cheaper workers.
- Globalization may lead to more environmental problems. A company may want to build factories in other countries because environmental laws are not as strict as they are at home. Poor countries in the Third World may have to cut down more trees so that they can sell wood to richer countries.
- Globalization can lead to financial problems. In the 1970s and 80s countries like Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia or Brazil got a lot of money from investors who hoped they could build up new businesses there. These new companies often didn’t work, so they had to close down and investors pulled out their money.
- Some of the poorest countries in the world, especially in Africa, may get even poorer. Their population is not as educated as in developed countries and they don’t have the new technology that we do.
- Human, animal and plant diseases can spread more quickly through globalization.
