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History of Technology 2: Pros and Cons of Globalization 160 Views
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Description:
Globalization is coming. Fun fact, that was the motto of House Stark before they changed it to "winter is coming." ...Don't hold us to that.
Transcript
- 00:02
Like everything else that exists globalization has some big advantages
- 00:06
and some big disadvantages let's start with the pluses like positive around [Rocks fall on person]
- 00:11
here all right probably the most widely
- 00:14
agreed-upon advantage of globalization is that it allows a massive exchange of
- 00:18
information better faster and more popular information technologies are
Full Transcript
- 00:23
spreading around the world and allowing the free dissemination of info and cat
- 00:28
videos galore hey we're still trying to stay positive here or paw-sitive.... [Man watching video of a cat]
- 00:32
well some say that globalization is also
- 00:35
starting to give the world a sense of cultural unity lots of people think that
- 00:39
the sharing of information languages cultures ideas and stuff will help to
- 00:43
unite the globe you know like hey we're all humans in this thing together no [People battling with swords]
- 00:48
matter what our religious or ideological divisions are yay isn't it fun that we
- 00:53
all believe that and we're not constantly in some terrifying global
- 00:58
conflict well who knows... maybe one day the entire human population will
- 01:01
simultaneously hold hands and sing around of kumbaya [family singing songs by a piano]
- 01:05
all right well globalization is also helping to provide low-cost consumer
- 01:08
goods through the magical math of globalized economies cheap labor cheap
- 01:13
natural resources cheap transportation and tons of consumers equals $2 shirts [People grabbing 2 dollar shirts off a rack]
- 01:19
at Walmart what we never said they were stylish $2 shirts
- 01:22
well globalization is also creating larger market that's the tons of
- 01:27
consumers part from the earlier equation if the whole world is our markets and [Earth spinning]
- 01:31
businesses and corporations and ultimately individuals have the
- 01:35
potential to make bunches of money while technological equality is also helped
- 01:39
along by globalization this is another biggie...
- 01:42
so stop doodling pictures of dogs riding unicycles in your notebook school for [Boy doodling in notebook and man throws book away]
- 01:47
most of the 20th century there's been a huge technology divide between the super
- 01:50
developed West and the developing world through globalization that gap is [Man stood outside GAP]
- 01:55
closing yep charity commercials might show us
- 01:59
Africa being full of mud huts and sad children with flies on their faces [Children in Africa on the TV]
- 02:04
but Africans are totally taking advantage of a wave of new technologies
- 02:07
which is great, slow progress but progress nonetheless...
- 02:11
okay enough positives when lets change the music here to show we mean business
- 02:14
that's better nice and gloomy it's time to dig into globalization's [People eating at a cafe]
- 02:19
downside like how about wealth inequality all that wealth generating
- 02:24
stuff we mentioned before has a tendency to generate great wealth [Money raining]
- 02:28
for a select few the workers in the textile factories are definitely not
- 02:32
benefiting as much from the global economy some might even say that the
- 02:36
global economy is totally taking advantage event [Boss feeding an elephant]
- 02:39
well globalization has also created an increase in corporate power ginormous
- 02:43
corporations have tended to be the main folks regulating the global economy
- 02:47
which makes them bigger which gives them more dollars which makes them more [Building increases and dollar signs fall from sky]
- 02:51
powerful well it's kind of like how the Incredible Hulk gets bigger and stronger
- 02:54
the madder his enemies make him.. some people are totally fine with that but
- 02:58
others worry about giving power to folks who care more about money than local
- 03:01
communities.. Well globalization also increases the chances of environmental [Cons of globalization]
- 03:06
damage we've mostly talked about the money side of making that $2 t-shirt but
- 03:10
cotton doesn't fall from the sky which wouldn't be all that bad considering [Cotton balls fall from the sky]
- 03:15
sometimes giant chunks of ice fall from the sky and we take cotton any day every
- 03:19
stage of production has some pretty nasty environmental side effects too
- 03:23
growing more cotton means clearing more land and using the soil more intensively [Plane pours water over crops]
- 03:28
and spraying more chemicals, while harvesting it and transporting it takes
- 03:32
ton of fossil fuels and turning cotton into t-shirts in solution well throwing the
- 03:37
t-shirt away when it's stained in six months means growing landfills c'mom guys
- 03:42
buy a tie to go right... well some also complain that globalization is
- 03:47
creating a loss of cultural diversity well you know that whole sense of global
- 03:51
oneness well some people argue that it's taking away the unique awesomeness of [Family enjoying meal at the table]
- 03:56
each individual culture and smooshing us all toward one huge melting pot well
- 04:01
after all TGI Fridays is great but does it need to be just everywhere well some
- 04:07
also worried about financial instability that globalization can cause it looks
- 04:11
like this gigantic interconnected global economy isn't always stronger when [Economy working out]
- 04:15
everything happens instantaneously and everything is connected small events on
- 04:19
one side of the world can have a huge ripple effect [Butterfly flying over map of Earth]
- 04:22
like how the Great Recession in the US recently rippled across the world so
- 04:26
what's the verdict is globalization good or bad well it's a whole lot of both it
- 04:30
seems but either way it's coming and like yet another mediocre Fast and the [Vin Diesel standing as cars whizz past]
- 04:34
Furious sequel it cannot be stopped.
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