TNCs and the Influence of US Culture

TNCs or Trans-national corporations are a major part to the globalisation and cohesion of our world community, contributing via many factors, such as through the art, film, movie and music industries. Many major trans-national corporations, although beneficial in that way, are often seen as detrimental to each respective country by their governments. Nowadays, the TNCs we often interact with are those that come from the US and due to this, US culture and influences are seen by our governments, as a hostile threat.

One of many reasons that governments are becoming more and more concerned about TNCs and the ever-growing US cultural dominance is that soon enough, these major companies along with their US-orientated products will soon engulf the world into just one american culture. TNCs such as Nike, Starbucks, KFC and Coca-Cola are major american icons, but even though we consume these products, we as Australian citizens are submitting to the wrath of cosumerism and falling to the ploys of these greedy TNCs. Governments see these TNCs as a threat towards their nations’ global identity and uniqueness, such as Australia and her folklore, poetry, sport and spirit. Not only will the nation be stripped of their individuality but also of the tradition and culture that has been preserved for many centuries. 

Secondly, governments see these large companies and the domineering US influence to be a threat towards their national sovereignty, or government power. McDonalds, as everyone knows is the largest and most powerful fast food restaurant and TNC to date, making profits of millions, if not billions of dollars each year. To the government of a nation, this is seen as a threat to their power. Because McDonalds has so much money and influence on the world, it is able to do as it pleases, constructing restaurants at will. The government, try as they might will be unable to stop them and by chance they do succeed momentarily, major companies like McDonalds will take them to court and that is a risk of millions of tax-payer’s money that governments will not be willing to take.

To counter-act the pressures that american and other nation’s TNCs place upon us, we try our best to rid ourselves of their influence and temptations. In the early 1990s, the Vietnamese government decided that they would do something about the flooding of american culture that was entering their nation. They started to launch a campaign which aimed at removing unwanted cultural influences including those from the US. Such “unwanted” influences included pornography, films that contained pornographic and/or violent material and also any product that campaigned for and promoted pro-Western democratic ideas. During this period of crackdowns, the Vietnamese governement arrested 23 300 Vietnamese people that were involved in any way with these “harmful cultural products”, which included the consumers and the suppliers.

Albeit these globally recognised trans-national coporations do assist with our global community, in the way of promoting cultural integration, the loss of our own cultural identity and traditions far outweighs anything that a US company or French company could provide us. To help our own nation to sustain our uniqueness and individuality, we, as Australian citizens should support our music, movie, art industries and purchase Australian-made goods while at the same time, limiting the products we consume from TNCs. So the question really is, is giving up our long-held traditions and cultures really worth a Big-Mac or a pair of new Nikes?

Image via Wikipedia