First of all, not everyone would agree that our country is better off because of globalization. There are many who think that we are not. That said, let us look at reasons why supporters of globalization might think that globalization has helped us.
One aspect of globalization is economic. Economic globalization has helped us largely because it has given us access to sources of cheaper labor. What this has done is to give us a higher standard of living. It has allowed us to have more material goods and to pay less money for them. It has allowed us to have higher-quality goods since there is more competition between companies from around the world. These are clearly good things.
Another aspect of globalization is political. Political globalization has meant that more of the countries of the world are coming to share basic political ideas. Mostly, this has meant that there...
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is more of a move towards liberal democracy around the world. This has, to some degree, helped us by making much of the world safer. The larger number of countries with similar political systems makes for less conflict than there used to be.
A final aspect of globalization is social and cultural. We are in closer contact with more countries of the world. This has helped to enrich our cultural lives. We now have more options in entertainment and literature and other areas of cultural and social life.
To what extent is our nation better off due to globalization?
Our nation is better off in many ways because of globalization. However, there are also ways in which we are worse off. Overall, I would say that we are somewhat better off because of globalization.
Typically, we hear most about the down sides of globalization. We hear about how jobs have left the US and have gone to places like China or Bangladesh. This is very true. We are worse off in some ways because jobs have been offshored to countries where wages are lower. This has particularly harmed people who do not have college educations.
On the other hand, globalization has helped our consumers and even some sectors of our economy. Some companies are doing better because they can sell their products in new markets around the world. American consumers are benefitting greatly from the lower prices on consumer goods that are made possible by globalization. This has allowed us to have a higher standard of living. It allows us to have everything from clothes to smartphones at lower prices than would be possible without globalization.
Thus, globalization has helped us in some ways and hurt us in others. We are somewhat better off because of it.