Globalization

Mumbai, India can boast to be one of the most impoverished cities in the world with over half of its entire population living below the poverty line. Their slums are known the world around, like those in Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City —where poverty too is a pandemic. The slums where these people are forced to live breed crime and animosity, which eventually turns into rebellion and warfare, as seen in institutions like the S. American drug cartels and African warlords in Somalia and Darfur, but also in places like the Malacca Straits, where piracy has become an increasing problem.

The policies of globalization do nothing to combat this problem; in fact they make it worse. The mass industrialization of developed countries allows them to sell imports to third-world nations at prices that are cheaper than locally produced goods. Therefore, these imports effectively undercut the profitability and livelihood of local works, which inevitably drives them into the city in need of work. This only compounds the problem. The massive slums plaguing these cities are populated by people working long hours for little pay, unrepresented by unions, and unable to afford the minimum cost of living. Their employers exploit them and even more so because of the hostile competition brought on a global markets and free trade. It may seem as if we are doing these impoverished people a great favor by selling them goods at lower price or sending them free food, but were not. In Alcoholics Anonymous they call it being an ‘enabler.’ We enable them to be dependent and, subsequently remain impoverished. What do we do then? We as compassionate, concerned American want to do something, right? We’ll the answer is not entirely simple or singular. Everyone’s heard the old adage that, “you give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; but teach the man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” I think that’s real moral and I think it’s what we’ve been missing the whole time.

We just need to stop, stop exporting to their country and outsourcing our jobs their. We need to stop sucking the life out of their economy under the farce of making it better. We need to encourage them to become self-sufficient and independent. We need to stop sending food and start sending seeds; corn, beans, fruit, vegetables, things like cotton and hemp. We need to give them the ability to not need us. We should be sending consultants and diplomats to their heads of state and political leaders to try and teach them how to effectively manage a country. One of the precepts of Taoism is “action by inaction.” It means that the best course of action is the one that’s least disruptive to the natural flow of things. It seems to me that we’re trying to make these countries more like us, rather than foster them in making a government that best suits their own culture and society. One of the most valuable things in this world is a different opinion, and we’re killing it with the mindless exportation of our American culture. I am an American, but I don’t want everyone in the world to be an American, too. I do however want to see a survivable standard of living for everyone who calls this planet home. No one deserves to live a substandard life in this age of prosperity and innovation.