Remember the good old days?

                “It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity.” This is quote from Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the UN and it pretty much sums up my view on globalization.  The arguments for pros and cons of globalization are so many that I really cannot pick a side I can only put it into two categories things I like about it and things I do not.

                I grew up in a very capitalistic family my father graduated with a degree in finance and had been working in property management for my whole life.  There was a lot of emphasis on collecting things and not only that collecting things that are of good value.   Sometimes this means buying things that are expensive sometimes not.  What I do know that whether the product is my Digital SLR camera or a cheap toothbrush they may have some things in common, like being manufactured in China.  Whether or not I like this doesn’t matter there is a good possibility that most cameras are manufactured in China.  But in this way I support globalization I buy products that are not from this country, and I am sure it is affecting China in many ways that I can only control through not buying the product.  There is an interesting thing about globalization, you almost have to adopt a nationalistic attitude in order to stop it from happening, like we saw in Ishiguro’s An artist of the Floating world.  But not only that it has to be on a huge scale because if only 50% go for it then it will not work the companies will not survive.  There is no way that we as Americans can stop that I can only fight so many battles.

                I don’t shop at Wal Mart, I have not done this for more than three or four years now.  I know that’s a popular thing to do but they represent one part of globalization I find frustrating, the destruction of companies by overly aggressive business tactics.  As a business major I have taken two semesters of economics and I have taken other various business classes that have expanded on this topic and they have only reinforced my decision not to shop there.  The fact that they are able to shut companies down by not resigning contracts is absurd; the fact that other developing countries now want the product that Wal-Mart sells has only worsened the problem, since all the time the amount of products they sell is ever increasing.  Now I know that me not shopping at Wal-Mart will not stop them from growing, but it is up to each person to decide what and where they shop.

                After presenting some of my arguments for and against globalization the same outcome is likely it will have to work its self out no one person can stop it.  And any political movement would have to be on a global scale to decrease its affect.  To some up what I think of globalization I would say do what you can while you can do it because it is an unstoppable force.