English Assessment on G. Easterbrook's idea of Globalisation

Since WWII, it has been an everlasting debate whether globalisation does have or not a positive impact on the world’s economy, the overall wealth of people today and future generations. I am utterly convinced, that globalisation is one of the major benefits our today’s society offers to humanity in the field of business, economic growth and culture. In this assessment, we will discuss the major profits of living in a globalized world, basing the argumentation on G. Easterbrook’s essay “Sonic Boom” and particularly on the example of the Chinese megalopolis Shenzhen.

According to the dictionary, globalisation is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture. Advances in transportation (such as the locomotive, steamship, jet engine, and container ships) and in telecommunications infrastructure (including the rise of the telegraph and its modern offspring, the Internet, and mobile phones) have been major factors in globalisation, generating further interdependence of economic and cultural activities. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people, and the dissemination of knowledge. Let’s make it simple – the foundations of a globalized world are free trade, investments, cultural exchange and education. The deriving profits are cheaper consumption goods, lower costs, bigger investment yield, international cooperation etc.

In 2009, a well-known advocate of the theory of globalisation, Gregg Easterbrook, published an argumentation, based on the enormous success of Shenzhen. Nearly four decades ago, this city was a small fisher village, counting about 30’000 inhabitants. In 1979, it has benefited from a special economic policy, ran by the Chinese government, which has allowed foreign investment in this particular city. Since this year the wealth of Shenzhen grows exponentially. Massive foreign investment, a free trade agreement with Hong-Kong and an abundance of cheap manpower provided the basis for an overwhelming success of the megapolis. Today, Shenzhen has nearly 9 million residents sharing the material and immaterial fortune of acknowledged universities, research centres, banks, technological companies and so on, in a total worth estimated to be more than 270 billion $ (GDP 2015 according to the national statistical office). The benefits of globalisation are obvious! This example illustrates very well the power of the phenomenon: the city changed from the Communist way of life to a Capitalists concept and has experienced a rapid economic growth.

However, Easterbrook goes even beyond that. As far as he is concerned, a globalized capitalism is only a transitional form of economics that eventually lead to a “postscarcity” system – this is a theoretical economy in which most goods can be provided in great quantities with minimal labour needed, so that it becomes available to all very cheaply or even freely. This way the whole population will see their basic needs met. This seems perfectly correct to me, because globalization establishes new consumption markets. More markets means more businesses, more businesses means more working human resources, more HR means more taxpayers and finally, taxpayers bring money to the state, which is

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