If you use the narrow definition that globalization is the manner in which companies use their products and services to gain international influence and power, you can certainly see there are many problems with globalization. However, if you look at globalization as the ability of even the smallest company to begin trading across borders or internationally, there are fewer problems that develop within the picture. For the most part, the modern world is so entwined in a global relationship of epic proportion, and if one major international trader failed, there could be a problem for many minor nations, poor economies, and small businesses that associated with that international trader. Such are the problems linked with modern international trade.
Problems
News stories are filled with scaremonger tactics of the problems between the US and at a minimum of one other country at least twice a year. The reporters have declared yearly that the US was embarking on or expanding on a trade war of epic proportions that would destroy the world economy and bring nations to their knees. Why do the reports continue to flow from these scaremongers? The main reason is that it sells advertisements on news stories, and that means money. It no longer seems to matter if the news is true, if the trade war is imminent, or if any economy is ready to collapse. Truth no longer appears to matter to those writing the news, and that can only lead to problems if any of those false tales are believed.
Ignorance
The first possibility as to why the news stories continue to flow is that while some people may wish to start another world war to pad their coffers, most people are smart enough to know that the common man is the one that ends up perishing in battles, and with the number of people in China, the nation could send hundreds of waves against other countries. By sheer numbers of common fighting soldiers, a battle between China and any country would be devastating, destructive, and heartbreaking. Who would win? The country with the most nuclear weapons would ultimately win, but at what cost? The second possibility as to why the news scatters about from alarmists is that when scaremongers declare the phantom menaces, they may simply be ignorant of how the international free trade has worked for many decades.
Egocentricity
Many people find it hard to believe that the United States is not the center of the world when it comes to international trade. There was once a time when America was a supreme power, but that time has passed as other nations have become more independent, industrial, and commercially based. When the scaremongers declare the end of globalization because of a tiff between America and another country, it is simply what it is, a tiff – because it doesn’t matter to most other countries as they continue to participate in free trade deals. The old egocentric idea that the US could dominate and demand how the global economy functioned has long passed as other countries make deals that benefit their countries without the help or approval of America.
Wars
If a trade war were to occur, the smaller economies would be hurt hardest through the limit of their exports. It seems it is always the less developed and poorer nations that take the brunt of the temper tantrums of the bigger countries as they attempt to show who has the largest global muscles. The larger countries with their more developed trade agreements would probably carry on as if nothing were happening as they continued to export their goods and services. There may be a few import glitches during a trade war, but for the most part, banks like GBTI Bank, and other leading financial institutions, would continue to do business internationally as they always have done.
Business
The threats of tariffs still hold some weight, but they don’t hold the threat they once did because of the flexibility and the dishonesty of many modern business operations. If a company wants goods inside another country, there are people that can be paid off, documents that can be forged, and backdoor shipping methods that circumvent the standard and common way business is supposed to be done. Trade operations can also be exchanged, such as one country exporting items to another country that passes the items onto the intended country in a silly type of freight game. Besides, tariff rates are currently very low compared to what they were between 1875-1900 when tariffs were at almost 50 percent. As tariff rates have continued to shrink over the years, the possible threat leveraged against other nations by a higher tariff or more restrictive tariff often means very little.
The scaremongers may have many stories to tell in the coming years. Will you find yourself believing any of them as they get retold several times but never come to fruition?
