Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people, and economic activity. It is generally used to refer to economic globalization: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import quotas. Globalization contributes to economic growth in developed and developing countries through increased specialization and the principle of comparative advantage.

An international movement toward “free trade” and globalization shaped the latter half of the 20th century. Most nations have built-in significant protections and regulatory frameworks to keep globalizing forces in line. Americans cannot rely on having a comparative technological advantage, because this nation is actually behind in many fundamental technologies. Americans cannot rely on high labor efficiency, because the low costs overseas far outweigh any inherent bump provided by our highly skilled and educated workforce.

Positive of globalization in the US

Increased Competition
One of the most visible positive effects of globalization is the improved quality of products due to global competition. Customer service and the ‘customer is the king’ approaches to production have led to improved quality of products and services. As the domestic companies have to fight out foreign competition, they are compelled to raise their standards and customer satisfaction levels in order to survive in the market. Besides, when a global brand enters a new country, it comes in riding on some goodwill, which it has to live up to. This creates competition in the market and a ‘survival of the fittest’ situation.

Generates more wealth and prosperity

Utilization of capital with the cropping up of new markets and new opportunities is definitely the most vital impact of globalization on the richer countries. This in turn generates more wealth and prosperity.

Bigger profits

      U.S. companies make bigger profits by sending jobs overseas.

Merging Politics

Gradually there a world power is being created instead of compartmentalization of power sectors. Politics is merging and decisions that are being taken which are actually beneficial to people all over the world.

Communications

Most people see speedy travel, mass communications and quick dissemination of information through the Internet as benefits of globalization.

Promotes Progressive Thinking
Globalization is not merely limited to exchanging food, recipes, and the likes, but runs deeper in the way of bringing about a change in the attitudes and thoughts of people. It makes people tolerant of varied views from different parts of the world and thereby promotes progressive thinking and to bring about social reforms in society. It also helps in the political field by making different governments aware of the varied ways in which governments are run.

Better Products

Countries move to market sectors that they are better at. This simply      means that the labor in a country is going to do what it’s best at. There is no need for Americans to do manufacturing when someone in China can do it better. Our labor is better served doing something beneficial.

Negative of globalization in the US

 Unemployment

In the new global system, multinational corporations can shop for labor almost anywhere they want.  So why should they give American workers good wages and good benefits when they can legally pay large numbers of workers on the other side of the globe slave labor wages and get away with it? This is having a devastating impact on manufacturing in the United States.  In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of all U.S. economic output.  In 2008, it represented only 11.5 percent and it continues to fall.

Increased Competition

Globalism has allowed foreign countries to dominate a whole host of industries that used to be dominated by the United States. U.S. companies are having an incredibly difficult time competing against the low labor costs and the much less stringent business regulations found on the other side of the globe. In May, the United States spent 50 billion dollars more on goods and services from the rest of the globe than they spent on goods and services from us.

Child labor and slavery

There are various schools of thought which argue that globalization has led to an increase in activities such as child labor and slavery. In countries with little or no accountability, corporations employing children can work smoothly by bribing the officials, which may result in an increase in illegal activities. Critics opine that globalization has resulted in a fiercely-competitive global market, and unethical practices in business is a by-product of this.

Moving Infrastructure

Corporations are building up units in other countries that equally well equipped, thus transferring the quality to other countries.

Diseases

Globalization is also leading to the incursion of communicable diseases. Deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS are being spread by travelers to the remotest corners of the globe.

Affects Local Markets
When foreign goods flood the market and people begin to buy them, it is done at the cost of the local goods, especially in developing countries. For example small time businessmen who do not have the resources to export their goods and only depend on the locals to buy them, go through varied degrees of losses because their goods are not sold. So if you ask a small time businessman whether globalization is good or bad for developing countries, he’ll probably answer in the negative.

Loss of Power

This undoubtedly superior United States doesn’t exist anymore. As a center of power, it is still more powerful than others, but for some years now that energy has been flowing in the opposite direction. Today, Asian, Latin American and European nations are also playing a role in the United States’s productive core. The world’s greatest exporter became its greatest importer. The most important creditor became the most important debtor.

My opinion