Post 6- The Global Economy

Last week in class, we looked the global economy from a sociological perspective.
It was really interesting to see the effects that globalization have had on the economy.

We talked about Rodrik's 3 sources of tension and Robinson's four concerns. I like both perspectives on this issue, but I was slightly more intrigued with Robinson's ideas.
He was first concerned about "over accumulation." That is where we see the world culture being shaped by the west. The issue with this is that the Western world consumes A LOT of resources. He was probably concerned with this, because if everyone acted like the West, we would be in real trouble with the world's natural resources and environment.
He was also concerned about the "globalization," where there is a large buffer between the world's rich and the world's poor. Some research says that this gap is getting smaller, but there is also some conflicting research. Some worry that this gap will increase with an increasing global market.
Robinson though additionally about the power individual states and politics. He believes that because of so many multinational business transactions and trade deals, that it will sort of "liquify" country boarders and lessen the power a government has.
Lastly, he was concerned with sustainability and the well-being of the planet. Not only would western world-like behavior cause an excessive and dangerous amount of consumption. There are also poor people that are also not helping out with the environment. For instance in South America, there are a lot of people barely making it by day to day. Some people are desperate for money and really think nothing of the environment. A large amount of people have no money for land to raise cattle or grow crops, so what they will do is burn down rain forest so they have some land to work with. The issue is that the soil will not be very good for long and the people will continue to burn down the forest for more land; they have to do it for survival.

In my opinion, I really believe that the western countries should reevaluate the way they are displaying themselves to others. We should really cut down on our use of resources, energy, etc. That way, developing countries cannot justify what they are doing. I honestly do not think pointing our fingers at developing countries, because they are trying to get ahead of the game and if we limit them significantly on their consumption, they may never improve.

Here is an info-graphic that may help you visualize just a fraction of what the US and other Western Countries are consuming in terms of oil. This was very eye opening.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/world-oil-consumption-001.jpg