Pros and Cons of Globalization

Today in class, we discussed the pros and cons of globalization. One pro is that globalization is the logical "natural" expression of modern international capitalism. The con is the globalization is a policy promotes by core counties; it results in equities between "haves" and "have nots". Another pro is that new wealth will "trickle down" from rich to poor (countries and individuals). The con is that it is not just working; in the last 20 years, rich countries have grown richer, while poor countries have become more impoverished. A pro is that globalization will spread benefits of new ides and technologies. A con is that it promotes free-market, export-oriented economies at the expense of localized, sustainable economies. A fourth pro is that the world's poor countries will catch up to the rich ones. A fourth con is that it's not fair: the richest 20% of world's people consume 86% of the world's resources. The final pro is that each country can produce the goods for which it is best suited. The last con is that the whole economic system is very unstable, too easy for a crisis to escalate. We also looked at a powerpoint on population and settlement. I learned that there are over 7 billion people on the planet right now. It increases by over 73 million per year. (0% of this population growth takes place in the developing countries of Africa, South America, East Asia, and Latin America. It amazes me that there are that many people on this earth and I will not even meet 1/16 of them.