Response to Arguments Opposing Globalization

When we hear American politicians or activists take a stance against globalization, we often hear this one criticism reverberating over and over again:

"Globalization will put decent hard-working, blue collar Americans out of work."

And why wouldn't it? Those opposing globalization love to vividly paint corporations as soulless, money-hungry elitist organizations that will sell their services to the highest bidder (or in this case, most atrocious human rights offender). The thought that there is this "Race to the Bottom" held by Corporate America to get countries to lower their wages, living standards, and working condition laws to attract foreign investment is substantiated.

The countries American companies are investing in the most are China and India (taking away all those precious call-center jobs from us hard-working Americans). Both of those countries are experiencing an enormous increase in Foreign Direct Investment, which is helping to create a better image of America in these countries.

The PRC is right now sitting on over $1,000,000,000,000 that it gained from Foreign Direct Investment. For western countries, this is a huge bargaining chip that can be used to influence a nation of over one billion people to play by our rules. Because of this investment, China is able to undertake many new mega-projects that will sustain its people for generations to come. Among these projects are a 150-mile tunneling project to divert the water from a river in the south to a dried-out river in the population-rich north. The government is also getting started on building 400 new medium-sized cities (think: Allentown) that will allow for the Chinese economy to be transformed; instead of having millions of Chinese getting by as subsistence farmers, China will be exporting cars and technology, allowing it to import any food items its people will need.

All this investment in China has already started to reform China's standards of goods, which is something that must be improved before China moves on to join the ranks of the world's strongest powers.

To advocate for American jobs to be lost is wrong, but being that we are from a land with such incredible opportunities, shouldn't we hold our citizens to a higher standard than Indians or Chinese? There is nothing wrong with working in a toy factory or call center to get by, but for people to think that they can make a career out of it in America is foolish. There will always be nurses, doctors, teachers, toll collectors, service workers, maintenance workers, and technicians of all varieties that will be needed in America. Those jobs cannot be outsourced, and even if outsourcing does cost some Americans their job, globalization will go a long way in creating American allies around the world, and eventually this rising tide will even raise our boat.