Argumentative Essay Sample: Globalization Is More Beneficial Than Harmful
The period of globalization since WWII has been more beneficial than harmful overall because the average person gets more money, works less and lives longer life spans. Without globalization, the amount of people living in extreme poverty would be significantly higher than what it is today. A before the globalization period, around 65 percent of the world's population was in extreme poverty compared to today's 15 percent being below the extreme poverty line. Another reason why the world is easier to live in today is because the amount of hours the average worker works in a week has significantly dropped. Once the average European worker had to work on average around 66 hours a week to make a low level living compared to today where they work around 28 hours a week to get a far greater pay. The third reason why globalization has been beneficial is because the life expectancy since before 1939 has risen significantly. Before globalization the average lifetime for an American would be just below 60 years. In Today’s world the average age for an American is above 75 years. Overall the world is far easier to live in than before because of globalization.
The first reason Globalization is more beneficial than harmful is because of the amount of people living in extreme poverty. Before the globalization period after WWII, the number of people living in extreme poverty was far greater than what it is today. Before WWII, there was an astounding number of around 65 percent or 1.3 billion people living below the poverty line. Compared to 2021 where only 9.2 percent of the people on the planet live below the line. Because of globalization more jobs were created providing more chances for people to make better pay and productivity levels were raised which made more food and more housing available. Another reason why the people in poverty has lowered is because of the rising economy since WWII. Most workers can now be paid more than what they would have been paid before the war. According to the 1940 census, the average annual income for an American living in the 1930s was about 1,368 dollars which is about 22,500 in today's world. Today the average annual income has risen to 31,133 dollars a year which is almost 10,000 more dollars a year for the average person( gov site and Document 1). Globalization has lowered the number of people living in poverty making it more beneficial to live for an average person.
Furthermore, globalization is more beneficial than harmful because of how the average worker in the United States has to work far less than before WWII. In 1870 Americans worked on average 66 hours a week to make a decent wage. To make the same pay in today's world an average American worker has to work for 42 hours to make an even greater pay. The reason for this is because lines of work have significantly changed since 1870. For example, jobs in 1870 required a large amount of labor and a large percentage of the work force did these labor jobs. Nowadays jobs are much more labor free whereas we now have machines to do the previous labor jobs and work has become far more digital. Labor jobs require a larger quantity of time to complete which is why work weeks were longer. Adding on in 1870 almost all work was completed by hand and hard labor. In the year 2021, a large amount of labor work will be completed by machine. Machines are supposedly going to add 58 million jobs to work with the machines according to the Washington Post (washington post and Document 2) . Globalization has made life far more beneficial because the amount of hours a worker has to work to get a decent wage has significantly dropped.
A third reason why life is far more beneficial than harmful is because of how the average person now lives far longer than before. In the 1930s, the average life expectancy for a male living living in the United States was about 58 years. However in 2021 the average life expectancy for a male is about 78 years which is a significant increase since the 1930s. This is because globalization has made it easier to get healthy foods from across the world and lower the amount of hazardous worksites. With the increased usage of freighters and planes for transporting healthy foods across the world, it helps the people eating right to live longer. Another reason that humans now live longer because of globalization is because of modern health tech and medicines. There were only four recommended vaccines for children in the United States in the 1930s whereas today there are around fifthteen recommended vaccines for children. Because of the increased protection and distribution of the vaccines, kids and adults are less likely to die if they contract minaciuos diseases( vaccines site and Document 6). Because of the increased life expectancy for males, globalization has made living much more beneficial than harmful.
Globalization has its pros and cons, but some of the main cons is that with the rise of globalization the amount of natural resources has dropped. In order to create new means of production and transportation, there is a large amount of natural resources needed to complete these tasks. For instance trucks are heavily used to transport goods across the United States, but while they drive and burn fuel they release Co2 gases which are harmful to the environment and the earth. Globalization is also one of the many causes for global warming which could be catastrophic to the human race. However, even with the decreasing amounts of natural resources and the rising amount of co2 gas, globalization is still more beneficial than harmful. Globalization was the solution to how hard it was to live before WWII and without it life would be far harder. There was no other solution to make the world an easier place to live but there is a solution to the harms of globalization. Instead of using more resources people can now just recycle and use already made resources and to decrease the amount of co2 gas distributed people and companies have to switch to electrical vehicles (Document 5). All things considered globalization is more beneficial than harmful because it makes life easier to live.
In conclusion, globalization is more beneficial than harmful because workers can get better pay, work less hours, and the life expectancy age has risen. Because today there are more job opportunities to make a better pay, the amount of people living in extreme poverty has significantly dropped. Another reason globalization is beneficial is because the amount of hours a worker has to work is significantly less due to globalization creating less labor jobs which takes more time for humans to do. The last reason is that the life expectancy has risen due to modern medicine and more vaccines created from globalization. The benefits outweigh the costs because without globalization people would work longer, be in extreme poverty more often, and live shorter life spans. Now one might wonder, who cares? Or why does this bother me? It is important to know that without globalization life would be much harder and less beneficial to live in.
