How Has Globalization Affected Quality of Life

Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations. This process has effects on the environment, culture, political systems, economic development, prosperity and human physical well-being across the world. The perspective in the source embraces the further development of globalization as it has helped the economies of developing nations such as China and India. Globalization has also led to the economic co-operation of countries through organizations such as the WTO, NAFTA and World Bank. However, the negative impacts of globalization far outweigh the positives. NAFTA and WTO were originally created to increase the amount of global competition to give everyone in the world a chance to compete, but the greed of large corporations has ensured that money is not evenly distributed. In order to cut down costs, many developed companies are outsourcing their manufacturing to third-world companies like India and China, where the labor cost is low. The people in these developing nations are ready to work at one-fifth of what someone in the USA would call "low-pay". This has caused resentment among Americans as they are losing their jobs. Outsourcing is a major problem for developing problems as well as workers in developed countries. Furthermore, the consumption of high-calorie foods high in fat and sweeteners is increasing throughout the developing world. This is a cause of fast food chains spreading rapidly. Not only is junk food a huge impact on the health of citizens, globalization has made it a norm for citizens, especially teens to spend hours on the internet. People are no longer getting the minimum 30 minutes of physical activity each day. This is also a due to the increased innovation for different forms of transportation such as cars, buses and motorcycles. Globalization has also been proved to be detrimental to the environment with the overuse of natural resources due to high consumer demands. With the loss of natural resources, animal habitats are getting destroyed as companies are searching for more resources to further expand their companies. Globalization has increased the quality of life of the world's seven billion people, but has not benefited everyone as equally as it should have. It did not encompass the health and wellness of everyone in the world as well as the environment.

With globalization being the driving force for economic development across the globe, large companies such as Dell, Hewlett Packard, etc, are outsourcing to developing nations like India where wages of manufacturing goods are lower. For the past 30 years, American manufacturing has lost close to 6 million jobs. Outsourcing has created a culture of job insecurity. Prior to globalization, people had stable, permanent jobs, but now people live in constant fear of losing their jobs to foreign competition and outsourcing. It has led to an increase in job competition, but reduction in wages and lower standards of living. Also, confidential data is a concern to companies that outsource. This is especially true for companies that outsource to countries that may not have the same type of confidentiality laws or any at all. Another problem with outsourcing is that companies are putting all of their factories and manufacturers out in these foreign countries, but if there were to be some sort of pandemic or natural disaster to occur in these places, the company would no longer have any stock, and they would crumble. It is not only the developed nations that are complaining about outsourcing. People in developing nations - where most of the industries are set up, are complaining about the large amounts of garbage dumps where all the industrial waste is accumulated and that pollution levels are sky-high. Overall, outsourcing is an effect due to globalization and it should not continue to be practiced as it harmful to citizens of developed countries as well as the developing countries.

Over the past few years, it was believed that obesity only occurred to people that live in Western countries; but studies have proven that obesity has become a global problem mainly due to globalization. It has brought McDonalds, Coca-Cola, KFC, Nestlé, and many other companies that produce these "junk" foods. Not only have transnational corporations expanded into these developing countries, but also the type of food available affects the health of citizens. Globalization has encouraged developing countries to trade crops across borders by reducing tariffs. This causes changes in food prices, which decide what people eat and how much they eat. In turn, this increases the risk of obesity. People in developing countries now have enough money to purchase processed foods at supermarkets and are eating more fast food, but they don't yet have the knowledge to physical activity and healthier foods. The introduction of the internet has completely revitalised the way we live our life today. For example, 15 years ago, if you wanted to do your Christmas shopping you would