Global Trade & Quality of Life (ANSWERED)

QUESTION

Required Resources

Read/review the following resources for this activity:

Textbook: Chapter 3
Lesson
Minimum of 1 scholarly source

Initial Post Instructions

It has been said that global trade improves the quality of life. Do you believe that this is true? Are there examples of global trade lessening the quality of life in a particular country or region? Does everyone benefit equally from global trade? Why or why not?

Using research, argue either for or against the statement that global trade improves the quality of life.

ANSWER

Global Trade’s Outcome is a Probability of Improving the Quality of Life and not a Guarantee.

Global trade has been seen as contributing to the improvement of the quality of life, but not much attention has been paid to what they term ‘externalities.’ More attention is paid to the advantages while forgetting concerns like the health and well-being of the community residents. For instance, transportation experts refer to the impacts of globalization activities as externalities when they can directly harm the quality of the daily lives of the community residents. The main challenge is making global trade’s health and community impacts central to the discussions on the overall impact of globalization (Hricko, 2008).

The central argument is that global trade affects the quality of life, where the subsets of lessening the quality of life are included. My position is linked with activities of global trade known to lessen the quality of life. Moreover, I consider the negative impacts attached to the activities that lead to improving the quality of life. For instance, globalization allows companies to produce their goods at a low cost and derive competition that leads to falling prices, creating a wide variety of choices for consumers. However, the production process involved can be endangering to the community residents and even the workers as there may be strenuous activities involved.

Globalization, especially the steps involved in production and distribution, may not be favorable for the participants. For instance, in a feature published on 15 December 2007 by the New York Times, Barboza details how the Chinese fish export market is exposing its workers to danger, although seeking improvement through sales. The fish farming practice, which Barboza (2007) describes as taking place in toxic Chinese waters for export to countries like the United States, is an example of how globalization fails at improving the quality of life. Since they want to meet the global demand for fish and perhaps keep up with the competition, they end up endangering the lives of the people seeking to improve the quality of their individual lives.

References

Barboza, D. (2007). In China, Farming Fish in Toxic Waters. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/world/asia/15fish.html

Hricko A. (2008). Global Trade Comes Home: Community Impacts Of Goods Movement. Environmental Health Perspectives, 116(2), A78–A81. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.116-a78