Is globalization a good or bad thing? (buying, living in)

[belmont22]

The way things are going, eventually everyone will speak English, shop exclusively at Walmart, there will be a Starbucks and sushi place on every corner, little kids in China and Nigeria will be able to quote Jersey Shore and American-style corporatism will be the only kind of system in existence.

Is this the way you want the world to be?

[Repubocrat]

Originally Posted by belmont22

The way things are going, eventually everyone will speak English, shop exclusively at Walmart, there will be a Starbucks and sushi place on every corner, little kids in China and Nigeria will be able to quote Jersey Shore and American-style corporatism will be the only kind of system in existence.

Is this the way you want the world to be?

Well. As much as I disagree with a lot of things the USA does, I think we must be doing something right if everybody wants to be like us I mean, do you see the entire world wanting to adopt the ways of Saudi Arabia or Zimbabwe?

I find it hilarious when people talk about the downfall of the USA and how China will be the new superpower of the future. Have you ever watched a Chinese movie? Do you like Chinese pop music?

I would love to find an alternative to this "American" lifestyle but I am sure it ain't gonna be the "Chinese dream"

[iNviNciBL3]

I notice a lot of "Europeanisation" seems like everyones commuting by bicycle, buying smart cars, fiats, light rail being built, Major League Soccer, Vespas.

We have a little bit of "Asianization" too with Hello kitty toys, everyone drives a Toyota, good Asian food everywhere and Anime.

[belmont22]

Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3

I notice a lot of "Europeanisation" seems like everyones commuting by bicycle, buying smart cars, fiats, light rail being built, Major League Soccer, Vespas.

We have a little bit of "Asianization" too with Hello kitty toys, everyone drives a Toyota, good Asian food everywhere and Anime.

I would say maybe 1% of the cars I see on the road are smart cars, if that. Light rail is still a pipe dream in the US, I think the hopes for that in the near future are pretty much quashed now. Commuting by bicycle? Even somewhere like Portland, it's the small minority. MLS, exponential growth in a couple of metropolitan areas but football is definitely still king.

Asian culture has spread a little bit but still, it's probably only 5% at best of the total pop culture market outside of Asia. Even Europeans are starting to identify American pop culture as their 'own' culture.

[belmont22]

Originally Posted by Repubocrat

Well. As much as I disagree with a lot of things the USA does, I think we must be doing something right if everybody wants to be like us I mean, do you see the entire world wanting to adopt the ways of Saudi Arabia or Zimbabwe?

I find it hilarious when people talk about the downfall of the USA and how China will be the new superpower of the future. Have you ever watched a Chinese movie? Do you like Chinese pop music?

I would love to find an alternative to this "American" lifestyle but I am sure it ain't gonna be the "Chinese dream"

Who's to say they want to be like us? Maybe they feel like they have to speak English and go capitalist if they want to survive. Maybe the advertising power of the American media more or less brainwashes foreigners to adopt their shallow pop culture so they can become a part of the empire.

The USA is crumbling in my opinion though. Our political system is a joke, our infrastructure is older than most of our people and we haven't contributed anything significant to the arts in at least 25 years.

[animatedmartian]

Ford Europe to cut 5,700 more jobs in U.K., Belgium | Auto news | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

If this is any indication on the effects of globalization, I don't know if I could said whether it's a good or bad thing. I've only seen one side of the story and I'm actually very curious to see the other side.

The effect of outsourcing on Detroit has been well noted, but what about when that effect is reversed? If American corporations really took an effort to bring their jobs back to US shores, what effect would that have on non-US economies? I don't think most Americans would care if the rest of the world (Europe and China specifically) would end up looking like Detroit, but I definitely know that cities and countries that our corporations have invested in certainly wouldn't be happy. Living in a state that lost 300,000 jobs over one decade due to outsourcing, I can definitely make a good case that globalization is bad. But on the flip side, another city somewhere in the world grew because of it.So I guess what I'm really saying is that it depends on which end of the outsourcing you're on to determine if globalization is good.

As far as pop-culture and stuff, I'd say that in some way or another, cultures have always been spreading across the world and changing as they went. The only difference in modern times is that it happens much more quickly and dramatically (like through Youtube and Twitter as well as TV).

[Mac15]

Originally Posted by belmont22

The way things are going, eventually everyone will speak English, shop exclusively at Walmart, there will be a Starbucks and sushi place on every corner, little kids in China and Nigeria will be able to quote Jersey Shore and American-style corporatism will be the only kind of system in existence.

Is this the way you want the world to be?

I think thats a bit of an exageration.

Anyway, I don't mind it because i'm familiar with American culture and if i'm being honest it isn't much different to our own culture. But, if it was say chinesse culture it would be a bad thing as then our culture would be getting destroyed.

[jtur88]

I liked the world a lot better pre-globalization, but then I wasn't one of them. I liked the world when it was made up of a lot of different cultures and nationalities, each one feeling relatively free to pursue their own way of doing things.

Sadly, globalization started many centuries ago, when the European martime powers globalized all the other continents and imposed European philosophical and economic values on them. Once those principles had been set in stone, there was no place for development to go except to follow the same ruts in the road.

I first traveled abroad in the early 60s, to Latin America and the Middle East, and it was still refreshing to see that people went about their affairs without a great deal of reverence for any global fancies.

[Rob702]

Originally Posted by belmont22

The way things are going, eventually everyone will speak English, shop exclusively at Walmart, there will be a Starbucks and sushi place on every corner, little kids in China and Nigeria will be able to quote Jersey Shore and American-style corporatism will be the only kind of system in existence.

I don't think so. Americanization is not as prominent as one might think. Best example: German customers did not like Walmart's way of treating their employees and no one ever went there so they withdrew from the German market. There are also only like 100 Starbucks places or so and that in a country of 82 million people. So at least Germany won't be a part of this globalization you're talking about.

[russiaonline]

Originally Posted by belmont22

Who's to say they want to be like us? Maybe they feel like they have to speak English and go capitalist if they want to survive.

That's the right point. And the more correct one is - capitalists are pushing the "American way", because it's good for them.

EU resists it to some extent for decades. And now America is crumbling...