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Ethical Issues in Globalization

Ethical Issues in Globalization. We have to choose between a global market driven only by calculations of short-term profit, and one which has a human face.” — Kofi Annan. What is Globalization?.

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Ethical Issues in Globalization

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  1. Ethical Issues in Globalization We have to choose between a global market driven only by calculations of short-term profit, and one which has a human face.” — Kofi Annan

  2. What is Globalization? • a process (or set of processes) which embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions, expressed in transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of activity, interaction and power.

  3. Globalization Brings Four Types of Change • a stretching of social, political and economic activities across frontiers, regions and continents. • intensification of interconnectedness and flows of trade, investment, finance, migration, culture, etc. • a speeding up of global interactions and processes, the diffusion of ideas, goods, information, capital and people. • deepening impact such that the effects of distant events can be highly significant elsewhere and specific local developments can come to have considerable global consequences.

  4. Globalization, in short, can be thought of as the widening, intensifying, speeding up, and growing impact of world-wide interconnectedness.

  5. Some Big-Ticket Issues • Very personal: the meaning of work? • Organizational: who’s in charge, and of what? Supply chain ethics? • National: do nations matter any more? • Supranational: what does it mean that some areas are ‘developing’? • Global: systems change? Justice?

  6. JOB DISPLACEMENT • U.S. – more jobs overall, but many industries in decline. • A shift in skills and education required for higher-paying jobs. • Loss of economic viability for many communities. • Increasing competition among polities for job-providing ventures.

  7. JOB DISPLACEMENT In the developing world: The opposite is true … more jobs and industry growth, rising wealth, etc…. BUT … there are major issues of human rights and environmental protection at stake.

  8. SWEATSHOPS • “a shop or factory in which employees work for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy conditions.” --Merriam-Webster OnLine Dictionary

  9. Sweatshop abuses • Child labor, sometimes children as young as 5 or 6, • Piece rates instead of wages, requiring long hours to earn an income that does not come close to raising the worker out of poverty, • Mandatory overtime, sometimes 24-hour shifts, • Dangerous, unhealthy workplaces; no protective equipment to guard against toxic exposures, • Verbal intimidation, harassment, and bullying,

  10. Sweatshop abuses • Forced pregnancy tests and firing of pregnant women, • Physical and sexual abuse by supervisors, managers, and armed guards, • No breaks during the work day, even to go to the bathroom, • Lock-ins to prevent workers from stealing or leaving the factory, creating fire hazards, • Violent ends for those who try to organize unions.

  11. Addressing Sweatshop Problems • Supplier codes of conduct specify how supplier relations are to be handled and what suppliers must do in order to get and keep contracts with the company. • Factory monitoring, often by independent NGOs, to check for prevailing wage rates, underage workers, workplace hazards, or human rights violations.

  12. HEALTH THREATS • 36.5 million workers worldwide infected with HIV/AIDS (ILO data). • Health care not widely available. • Disease is poorly understood and often subject to prejudice. • Sufferers can’t afford drugs. • Families can’t afford to lose their productive workers.

  13. Malaria Cholera Dysentery, Malnutrition Measles Tuberculosis Yellow fever Dengue fever Schistosomiasis caused by parasitic flatworms Trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness Typhoid fever Other health threats:

  14. Underlying problems: • Lack of health care and related infrastructure • Very limited access to vaccines, anti- parasitics, and other pharmaceuticals • Lack of clean water

  15. “RACE TO THE BOTTOM” • Global price pressures lead to search for lower regulatory standards as well as labor costs. • This affects worker treatment and benefits, human rights, consumer & investor protection, environmental protection.

  16. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: “Eco Top Ten” • Agriculture – use of rural lands and development of sustainable farming; pesticide/herbicide use; bioengineering and genetically modified organisms. • Atmosphere – climate change/global warming, acid rain, smog, ozone depletion.

  17. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: “Eco Top Ten” • Biodiversity – “types of biodiversity and the plight of endangered species.” • Energy – the use of fossil fuels (oil, coal); the need to develop alternative energy sources. • Forests – deforestation and regrowth; forest ecologies.

  18. Fresh water – changing patterns, desalination, declining supplies of fresh water. Habitat loss – threats to species survival, causes, solutions. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: “Eco Top Ten”

  19. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: “Eco Top Ten” • Industry – the environmental impacts of industrial globalization. • Marine – life • Ecology – threats to the seas and the living things therein. • Population – growth, pressure, geographic patterns.

  20. Financial crashes tend to be immediate and the consequences are readily seen. However, environmental disasters tend to develop over a longer period of time, and the consequences are not so easy to discern. Industries are not so eager to establish international environmental regulation, and the temptations are great to find lowest-cost solutions to pesky developed-world environmental problems.

  21. WHAT CAN Globalization lead to?

  22. BRIBERY & CORRUPTION • Transparency International (Ti) defines corruption as “the misuse of entrusted power for private gain.”

  23. Albania, 66% Morocco, 60% Cameroon, 57% Congo, 40% Nigeria, 39% Mexico, 28% Ukraine, 23% Kenya, Peru, Venezuela, 22% Switzerland, Finland, Singapore, Sweden, 1% USA, United Kingdom, Turkey, South Korea, Austria, Taiwan, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, 2% Canada, 3% Israel, 4% “In the past 12 months, have you or anyone in your household paid a bribe in any form?” (Yes answers)

  24. Possible consequences of corruption: • Democratic elections • Government contracting • Victims of fraud • Overpayment • Lack of accountability • Supporting the incompetent

  25. “We must ensure that the global market is embedded in broadly shared values and practices that reflect global social needs, and that all the world's people share the benefits of globalization.” -- Kofi Annan

  26. QUESTIONS???

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