Topic: Globalization
Academic English Class 1
Group number: 3
Student name: Pham Nguyen Khanh Vy
Student number: 31201029217
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Topic: Globalization has resulted in better living standards, e.g., access to healthcare and
education. To what extent do you agree with this statement?
Globalization is the process of connecting the world through commercial and cultural
exchanges. Globalization has been occurred hundreds of years, but it has grown
dramatically over the past half century, according to the BBC. This essay will show that
globalization has positively impacted human living standard through many aspects. Firstly,
globalization reduces the world’s poverty through the economic growth (Kilic, 2015).
Secondly, education is changing positively thanks to the benefits of globalization, leading
to better academic level. The third reason is that human health is more guaranteed thanks
to the healthcare development from globalization and liberalization. A counterargument
for the improvement of the quality of life thanks to globalization is that globalization is the
main cause of cultural loss of a country. However, a response to this argument is that
globalization spreads cultures around the world, and the country would absorb great
cultures to improve their society. And the fourth reason is globalization reduces conflict
among countries which used to leave severe consequences to human and the world. This
paper will give evidences to proves those reasons.
Firstly, studies show that globalization impacts positively on world’s poverty. Specifically,
economic and political globalization reduces poverty through the economic growth
process, particularly in developing countries (Kilic, 2015). According to World Bank
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researchers, since the year 1980, there was a rapid decrease of people living in extreme
poverty from 31% to 20% of the world’s population (Held & McGrew, 2016). At that time,
globalization and liberalization took place drastically, leading to the development of
import-export industry and foreign investment. Thereby, scarcity of goods and services
was resolved around the world. Furthermore, to meet the demands of the global market,
the prices of many commodities are declined, such as luxury items also gradually
becoming affordable for many people. This positive change brings many benefits for the
poor (Harrison, 2006).
The second reason is that globalization has resulted in better education. Education has
constantly changed through globalization process, in terms of value of knowledge, roles of
teachers and learners as well as knowledge approach, etc. New useful knowledge or
effective teaching and learning methods have spread to people all over the world by many
ways, particularly through the Internet, and made the education significantly improved. To
prove that claim, according to statistic from Our World in data (2016), between the year
1800 and 2015, there was a positive reversal in literacy and illiteracy rates. If there were
86% of the world literacy rate in 1800, by 2015, 86% was the rate of literate people.
Moreover, as a positive result of globalization, education today offers people better
employment opportunities, which leads to better lifestyles, power, and status
(Chinnammai, 2005).
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Third, healthcare has also been improved thanks to globalization. It is no doubt that
globalization promotes foreign investment, a competitive market and liberalization, all of
which contribute to healthcare development, and improve people's health and awareness
(Levin Institute, 2011). Due to the liberalization, there has been a tendency of migration of
health workers. There were about 6% of physicians and 4% of nurses all over the world
working or training outside their country in 1970s (Mejia, 1978). According to Martineau,
Decker, and Bundred (2002), globalization facilitates migration between countries, leading
to many benefits including the improvement of the skills of health professionals. To clarify,
health workers can have opportunities to access to the latest and most effective medical
treatment methods from countries whose strength is medical research.
On the other hand, there is a counterargument propounded that globalization may lead to
cultural loss in a country or, worse, people will be turned into only one giant culture. The
specific cultural characteristics of many countries are gradually disappearing, as a result of
the mixture of cultures around the world through globalization. According to Erikson
(1950, 1968), exposure to many different cultures, especially among young people, can
lead to cultural identity confusion. Culture is the whole behaviour of an ethnic community
towards nature. Additionally, cultural identity is a criterion, a title, a value for global
integration. Losing a cultural identity leads to breaking of tradition, also means the loss of
the advantage in the development process of a country, according to Master Tran Huu
Son (Anh, 2014).
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However, globalization not only does not lose the culture of a nation, but also helps
spread different good cultures. This leads to cultural diversity and enhances the quality of
human life. According to studies of Wani (2011), people living in globalization process tend
to recognize the deficiencies of their country's culture and absorb good foreign cultures
that are appropriate to the era. Many fields such as movies, cooking, music, languages and
more, have moved from country to country and made their mark in the countries that
welcome them (D’Souza, 2005). A society develops their culture by absorbing other good
civilizations to create their own unique one. In that process, the living standards have also
been improved by raising awareness of the citizen about eliminating evil and outdated
customs and adopting more civilized and modern lifestyles globally (Wani, 2011).
Another reason to prove that globalization improves quality of life is globalization reduces
conflict among countries and contributes to maintenance of world peace. Economic and
cultural interdependence between countries creates friendly and close relationships that
help reduce unwanted conflicts which used to leave severe consequences to human and
other things in the worlds. According to study of Ju Hyun Pyun and Jong-Wha Lee (2009),
for every 10% increase in global trade openness compared to the average, the probability
of a conflict between militaries decreases by 2.6% from the forecast. The lower the rate of
conflict among different countries, the more prosperous, secure and happier human life
can become.
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In conclusion, this paper has provided some reasons and evidences to prove that
globalization has a positive result in human living standards through four aspects. The
reasons given consist of decrease in the number of people living in extreme poverty,
better education, healthcare improvement and reduction of conflict among countries.
There is a counterargument given that globalization can lead to cultural loss and create
only one big culture over the world, but in response, good cultures can be expressed to
other countries thanks to globalization, so that their culture will become better to be
suitable for this era and living standards will also be raised. Therefore, it can be concluded
that globalization has made a significant contribution to the improvement of the quality of
human life.
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Reference list
Kilic, C. (2015). Effects of Globalization on Economic Growth: Panel Data Analysis for
Developing Countries. Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti Bulletin, Technical Series, 67(1).
Held, D., & McGrew, A. (2000). The global transformations reader (Vol. 13). Cambridge:
Polity Press.
Harrison, A. (2006). Globalization and poverty (No. w12347). National Bureau of Economic
Research.
Chinnammai, S. (2005). Effects of globalization on education and culture. New Delhi.
Max Roser (2016). “The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we
know it”. Published online at [Link]. Retrieved from:
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Levin Institute (2011b). New analysis: Globalization of the food Supply: Mad Cow Disease
and International Trade, IMF+World Bank, State University of New York.
Mejia, A. (1978). Migration of physicians and nurses: A world wide picture. International
Journal of Epidemiology, 7(3), 207–215.
Martineau, T., Decker, K., & Bundred, P. (2002). Briefing note on international migration of
health professionals: Levelling the playing field for developing country health systems.
Briefing paper, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK.
Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
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Anh, K. (2014). “Mai mot ban sac van hoa dan den dut gay truyen thong, ….” Retrieved
from: [Link]
[Link]
Wani, H. A. (2011). Impact of Globalization on World Culture. Research Journal of
Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(2), 1-4.
D’Souza, Na (2005). Globalization is harming Indian Culture. The Hindu
Pyun, J. W. L. J. H., & Lee, J. W. (2009). Globalisation promotes peace. Vox. Last modified
March, 21.