In the last 25 years, we've gone from a national economy based on production to an open world market in which the competition is more and more fierce. Ten years ago, for example, developing countries represented 34% of the world's products; today they are at 40%. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that by the year 2005, they will represent 50%. The radical difference from the past is that Great Britain took 48 years to double its Gross National Product (GNP), and Germany took 47 years. It took South Korea only 12 years to achieve the same.
Everything in our time is faster, thanks to communications and exchange. To grasp this extraordinary concept, just picture the stock markets of New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and London. Combined, they are working 24 hours a day! The serious problem is that the "financial world" has defined itself as an economic science that is beyond social value, ethics and morality. All financial achievements are sanctioned in the name of profit and progress. The globalisation and liberation of markets in Europe is also the cause of new tensions and transformation of social assets that has left people very insecure about their future and that of their children.The social services fabric in these countries is being weakened by the constant tendency of the financial and economical world to support the hegemony market instead of placing the economy at the service of society and of social justice. In this new light of global economic relations, it is essential to find a new formula. To oppose globalisation is useless. Even governments are powerless against this transformation. Poverty and wealth are once again being redistributed. Governments are being forced to reconsider, to re-evaluate social welfare and produce budget cuts that provoke strong social tensions. Many do not perceive the gravity of the situation - Europe, for example, will soon have 20 million unemployed workers.
At this time the "powerful state" that is able to impose roles and limits on
business seems to be part of the past. With globalisation we are at the unofficial
end of the "political economy." This is the tendency of our time.
This new economic reality, if not reconsidered, will bring development and vast monetary wealth to some individuals and corporations, but at what cost?
Globalization is drawing attention to this struggle between economics for its own sake and economics for the good of people, of families and of nations. This means that now we also have an opportunity to see the situation from a different point of view. It is clear that in the new relations with other areas of the world, and with our crises at home, the economic solution cannot be disconnected from the common values, common understand in. and social co-operation.
Without re-evaluating the value of man, not as a number or a statistic but as a being of creativity and conscience, there is no solution to globalisation. If we truly care about the family of man, we need to convey values that are of common esteem in all societies and a fundamental entity for a stable society, such as positive and wholesome family relations.
If we can see the process of globalisation as a new opportunity for co-operation and expressions of harmony, we may have new possibilities for social fairness and cultural harmony never thought of or seen before.
References and Suggested Riding
Essays toward a Principled Economics. The Development of a Healthy, Productive
and Mature Economic System. Mose Durst, Ph.D. The End of Labour. Rifkin Jeremy.
McLuhan Marshall, Powers, Bruce. The Global Village. XXI Century: Transformation
in Life and in the Media. (From: 2 Exploring Change http://members.aol.com/bermultmd)